Box Wine

[cyril sneer]

why is the tax rate so high for wine in Thailand? heard various reasons why but not sure which one is true..

[Jeremia Juxtaposed]

My "secret" shop has now put their Castle Creek prices up although 5ltr of MC is still 1005. A penny more and I just won't buy it anymore. Hongthong does me just fine...

[Andrew65]

12 hours ago, xylophone said:

Phew........ I bet you feel better after that!

 

I too like writing about wine as it's been a hobby of mine for 45 years or thereabouts, however I can't address all of what's in your post, but I will put forward a few theories.

 

All the time the likes of Montclair could get away without paying the full amount of tax/revenue on their wines because they were mixed with fruit juice, then the product was cheap on the shelves, but that loophole has been closed, hence the price increase.

 

As you quite rightly stated, when one can buy "real wine" from Tesco's (and it's only 349 baht here) why would someone pay nearly 400 baht for a bottle of Montclair? So rather than finding its niche in the marketplace, it is now competing with other lower-priced wines like the one I've mentioned, and a few from Chile and even a few from Australia which I've managed to find (lucky me).

 

As for supermarkets, well I was told by someone high up in the Big C family here that this supermarket chain has been taken over by the owners of Chang (whether fully or partially, I'm not sure) so expect to see more of their product and associated products.

 

Furthermore I remember once asking why the wine area does not have promotions and was told that the advertising (not sure of the exact form) of alcohol is forbidden, hence I have to scour the shelves of supermarkets to see if any of the wine has a promotional price on it, because they're not allowed to advertise it as such, and occasionally bargains can be found by looking hard.

 

I was told by someone in the industry that the reason wine keeps getting hit with increases is because the owners of the large distillers/brewers who make the Hong Thong and Sangsom (and others) really want to keep their prices low in comparison to other alcohol, so that they sell more, so if wine is increased, then their product looks better/more affordable??

 

Lots of arguments could be had around that, so not worth going into here.

 

As for your comments on Château Loei, well if you scour the Internet you will find that of late the write-ups have been from average to poor to abysmal, so perhaps they've lost their way a little bit?

 

I think that's covered about all I wanted to say, however as there are many other wine enthusiasts on this thread and others, so no doubt more info and keen discussion can be had.

 

Around the early 2,000's the Gvt. made special offers on alcohol illegal. Up until then Villa Market used to do BOGOF deals on good wine, I used to buy 2 bottles of Hardy's or Penfold's Australian wine for around 600 Baht.

 

In fact in Australia, wine is still very good value, compared with any other kindsa p***!!

[lapswim]

Government everywhere is lying and cheating. This is a non-tariff barrier to lock out largely Australian alcoholic beverage producers. It goes against the spirit of the Australian-Thailand free trade agreement. Australia which gave up protection on its car industry and now imports largely from Thailand. Australia should put a barrier to in place on Thai cars until Thailand removes this tax. Australia follows the US. A Trump like force in Australia will be coming to renegotiate Australian bilateral trade deals. Alcoholic beverages are substitutable goods so mix your own. Grape juice and gin will you a wine cooler and the juniper berries in gin have similar health effects to red wine. Make sure you ALWAYS drink imported spirits to neutralisé bureaucratic meddling. 

[Andrew65]

2 minutes ago, lapswim said:

Government everywhere is lying and cheating. This is a non-tariff barrier to lock out largely Australian alcoholic beverage producers. It goes against the spirit of the Australian-Thailand free trade agreement. Australia which gave up protection on its car industry and now imports largely from Thailand. Australia should put a barrier to in place on Thai cars until Thailand removes this tax. Australia follows the US. A Trump like force in Australia will be coming to renegotiate Australian bilateral trade deals. Alcoholic beverages are substitutable goods so mix your own. Grape juice and gin will you a wine cooler and the juniper berries in gin have similar health effects to red wine. Make sure you ALWAYS drink imported spirits to neutralisé bureaucratic meddling. 

Booze ain't cheap in Oz, I spent a few years there. Although not a spirits drinker, I did notice how expensive they are in Oz.

 

Apparently, and broadly speaking, when countries are members of the WTO, one of the rules is that they can't tax imports from fellow members more highly than their own locally produced stuff. China is a WTO member, but cheat on the rules, one of the reasons why Donald Trump has put tariffs on them. They also manipulate their currency, as I believe Thailand does.

The Thais have been ramping-up taxes (especially "sin taxes") on goods for a long time now (they collect such little income tax, so they do it this way instead). As an example, my Marlboro Lights used to cost 33 Baht in 1998, they now cost 160'ish Baht.

 

I remember many years ago, Villa Market used to do buy-one-get-one-free on wines, effectively I used to get 2 bottles of Penfolds or Hardy's half price. Maybe 12 years ago, the gvt banned such offers on booze, probably partly to protect the nascent Thai wine/booze industry.

[StevieAus]

1 hour ago, Andrew65 said:

Booze ain't cheap in Oz, I spent a few years there. Although not a spirits drinker, I did notice how expensive they are in Oz.

 

Apparently, and broadly speaking, when countries are members of the WTO, one of the rules is that they can't tax imports from fellow members more highly than their own locally produced stuff. China is a WTO member, but cheat on the rules, one of the reasons why Donald Trump has put tariffs on them. They also manipulate their currency, as I believe Thailand does.

The Thais have been ramping-up taxes (especially "sin taxes") on goods for a long time now (they collect such little income tax, so they do it this way instead). As an example, my Marlboro Lights used to cost 33 Baht in 1998, they now cost 160'ish Baht.

 

I remember many years ago, Villa Market used to do buy-one-get-one-free on wines, effectively I used to get 2 bottles of Penfolds or Hardy's half price. Maybe 12 years ago, the gvt banned such offers on booze, probably partly to protect the nascent Thai wine/booze industry.

It depends where you buy your wine in Australia and obviously price can vary depending on the quality.

I find the imported wine here from Australia and New Zealand at least 100% more expensive than in Australia.

You cannot blame the freight it’s the tax.

I was in the UK in July Aug. and prices for same brands similar to Aus, so who is scamming who ???

[Andrew65]

On 12/1/2018 at 6:18 AM, StevieAus said:

It depends where you buy your wine in Australia and obviously price can vary depending on the quality.

I find the imported wine here from Australia and New Zealand at least 100% more expensive than in Australia.

You cannot blame the freight it’s the tax.

I was in the UK in July Aug. and prices for same brands similar to Aus, so who is scamming who ???

Yes, wine is the one kind of booze that's still a good buy in Oz. Spirits are outrageously pricey (compared to the UK).

 

I'm now living back in the UK after nearly 20 years in BKK. In the supermarket a few days ago, you're looking at £16 (about 670 Baht) for 70CL of Johnnie Walker Red. I think that's about 1,000 if bought in Thailand (where booze used to be much cheaper).