Over 80% Of Liquor Makers Stop Business

[nogutsnoapplepie]

BANGKOK, Nov 20 (TNA) – Saddled with heavy debts and an uncertainty in the government's policy over support given to small-scaled wine and liquor producers, some 6,000 of them, accounting for over 80% of whisky makers in Thailand, have suspended their businesses, according to the chief of the Thai Wine and Liquor Manufacturers' Association.

Mr. Chairut Monaipong said that some 6,000 small-scaled wine and liquor makers in villages had stopped production and unable to repay for loans they had taken from financial institutions after the government was not serious in promoting their products.

Also, these producers lacked enough knowledge in the production, and this had resulted in the products being sub-standard and affecting the market demand eventually, he said.

The association, he said, had sent letters informing responsible government agencies to find remedy before the producers faced more serious

debt problems.

He said the government should encourage and promote Thai producers, but what the government was doing was just an opposite as a large amount of imported wines had find their ways into the Thai market causing the country's loss of a lot of foreign exchange reserves annually.

He charged that European-made alcoholic drinks had indirectly obtained tariff privileges by sending their products to Thailand via member countries of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA). (TNA)--E111