Bangkok’s illicit craft brewers risk arrest under draconian laws

[webfact]

 

Big brewers maintain monopoly as smaller operations incur huge fines for even sharing photos of their beer

 

Rebecca Ratcliffe and Navaon Siradapuvadol in Bangkok

 

Naamcial’s craft beers often have distinctly Thai flavours, as he experiments with the country’s native produce, boiling the pulp of jackfruit and mango to mix into different creations. Yet his homemade products are forbidden in the kingdom.

 

Talking to the Guardian under a pseudonym, Naamcial says he would like to operate a legal brewery, but Thailand’s laws around alcohol production make this ambition almost impossible for newcomers. Current laws restrict brewing licences to manufacturers that have capital of 10 million baht (£230,000), while brewpubs must produce at least 100,000 litres a year and only serve their beer on their premises. The legislation effectively blocks new, small breweries from opening, and tips the market firmly in favour of two powerful companies – Thai Beverage, which produces Chang beer, and Boon Rawd Brewery, which produces Singha and Leo.

 

Attempting to loosen these companies’ grip on the Thai beer market, an MP for the opposition Move Forward party, Taopiphop Limjittrakorn, has proposed a new draft law on excise tax, which is under consideration by the Thai cabinet, and which he hopes will make the market accessible to smaller producers.

 

Full story: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/04/bangkoks-illicit-craft-brewers-risk-arrest-under-draconian-laws

 

-- © Copyright The Guardian 2022-03-05

 

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[ukrules]

It is a pathetic and corrupt situation which demonstrates that the large breweries and everyone involved in the legislative system regarding this matter is absolutely rotten to the very core.

 

There should be a full audit of the bank accounts / assets for everyone involved and their families going back for the last 10 to 20 years to find out just how this situation came into being and still exists.

I suspect there will be a massive trail of corruption and bribery

[impulse]

50 minutes ago, ukrules said:

There should be a full audit of the bank accounts / assets for everyone involved and their families going back for the last 10 to 20 years to find out just how this situation came into being and still exists.

I'm sure they'd investigate themselves and find that they did nothing wrong. 

 

Except members of the opposition parties... who will simply be banned from running for office.

[blazes]

It's a scandalous and shameful situation.  Though a clear illustration of how to use "democratic" laws to preserve your own position in society. 

As Lenin said, if you want to know how a society "works", just ask the question, "who whom?".   That is, who is $crewing whom.  The answer to that reveals all you need to know.

[Willy Wombat]

A banana republic run by oligarchs and the mafia in uniform.

 

Very sad for the ordinary Thai 

[ikke1959]

Democratic society were everything is controlled by monopolists and the rich.. Nobody has the freedom as a democracy should be. Now forbidden even to publish pictures of beer by small breweries...Thailand should mean free country, but the freedom is far away in every field except of the rich

[heybruce]

10 minutes ago, ikke1959 said:

Democratic society were everything is controlled by monopolists and the rich.. Nobody has the freedom as a democracy should be. Now forbidden even to publish pictures of beer by small breweries...Thailand should mean free country, but the freedom is far away in every field except of the rich

 

You think Thailand's government is democratic?  I think it is military rule pretending to be a democracy.

Edited March 4, 2022 by heybruce

[heybruce]

I've tried some Thai craft beers.  The oligopolies are right to be afraid, there are young, entrepreneurial Thais who know how to brew good beer that would run the companies selling over-priced swill out of business.

[ikke1959]

17 minutes ago, heybruce said:

 

You think Thailand's government is democratic?  I think it is military rule pretending to be a democracy.

No I don't say Thailand is democratic.. The Government says it is a democratic country and as Mr Prayuth once said we have our own democracy... As he maybe doesn't understand what democracy is

[madmitch]

14 minutes ago, heybruce said:

I've tried some Thai craft beers.  The oligopolies are right to be afraid, there are young, entrepreneurial Thais who know how to brew good beer that would run the companies selling over-priced swill out of business.

Actually they wouldn't run them out of business at all. The US has a thriving craft beer scene but that doesn't adversely affect the profits of Molson Coors and Anheuser Busch. In the UK the advent of CAMRA and more recently the craft beer brewers have had the effect of making the bigger brewers widen their product range and offer better beers, though many of them now make most of their profits on pub and hotel ownership rather than brewing beer.

 

However you're right about the Thai craft beers. I've tasted several and they knock spots off Chang, Leo and Singha. But whatever happens there won't be an overnight change in the beer drinking habits of the average Thai consumer.

[HighPriority]

I’m surprised that a couple of you ex special forces guys don’t pony up the 10 million Baht and partner one of these young Thai brewers…

[Excel]

2 hours ago, ukrules said:

It is a pathetic and corrupt situation which demonstrates that the large breweries and everyone involved in the legislative system regarding this matter is absolutely rotten to the very core.

 

There should be a full audit of the bank accounts / assets for everyone involved and their families going back for the last 10 to 20 years to find out just how this situation came into being and still exists.

I suspect there will be a massive trail of corruption and bribery

Wiki is your friend. Here is an extract that explains how one individuals support worked in the matter

 

"Links to former prime minister of Thailand[edit]

Prem Tinsulanonda, the former military general and prime minister of Thailand who sat on ThaiBev's board of directors in the early-2000s, helped rescue Charoen's Surathip Group, the distributor of Chang beer, in 1986. The company at the time owed 14 billion baht (approximately US$450 million) to banks and six billion baht (approximately US$190 million) to the state before Tinsulanonda reportedly stepped in to help the company gain a monopoly over the liquor industry by restructuring contracts to reduce annual "burdens". Chang was also reportedly classified as an "economy brand", which meant a lower excise tax.^[25]"

Edited March 5, 2022 by Excel

[hotchilli]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Attempting to loosen these companies’ grip on the Thai beer market, an MP for the opposition Move Forward party, Taopiphop Limjittrakorn, has proposed a new draft law on excise tax, which is under consideration by the Thai cabinet, and which he hopes will make the market accessible to smaller producers.

I for one would love to see small craft beer brewers start up all over Thailand, not only would it give the consumer a wider choice it would offer some employment opportunities to many.

It would also serve as a kick up the backside to the monopolies and maybe brew something better than what they now offer.

[IAMHERE]

The BIG brewers have a strangle hold on the beer industry. Why would they ever want to give up any of that power to make profits? Loosen that strangle hold and it may well lead to anarchy and chaos among the peasants. 

[hotchilli]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Big brewers maintain monopoly as smaller operations incur huge fines for even sharing photos of their beer

Welcome to Thailand.... the rich rule.

[itsari]

19 minutes ago, HighPriority said:

I’m surprised that a couple of you ex special forces guys don’t pony up the 10 million Baht and partner one of these young Thai brewers…

Yes, I see your point exactly .

Just sell a few bitcoin and get started . 10 million should be small change for them .

But there could be a few obstacles on the way if you tried .

[farangroby]

2 hours ago, ukrules said:

 

There should be a full audit of the bank accounts / assets for everyone involved and their families going back for the last 10 to 20 years to find out just how this situation came into being and still exists.

It would be like asking at Joan of Arc to collect wood for her pyre

[Ginner]

3 hours ago, ukrules said:

It is a pathetic and corrupt situation which demonstrates that the large breweries and everyone involved in the legislative system regarding this matter is absolutely rotten to the very core.

 

There should be a full audit of the bank accounts / assets for everyone involved and their families going back for the last 10 to 20 years to find out just how this situation came into being and still exists.

I suspect there will be a massive trail of corruption and bribery

This from a government who says he wants to stop corruption. What he means is , he wants to control the corruption so only he is the biggest mafia family in Thailand.

[Guderian]

You can see the PM's viewpoint. Do you remember early in the pandemic, around May 2020, Prayut announced his Covid recovery fund which was to be stuffed with oodles of cash by the richest people in the country? This was at the time that he'd also banned all booze sales entirely across the nation, and he refused to lift the ban until the owners of Boon Rawd and ThaiBev coughed up a few billion Baht for his personal Covid recovery fund. Now that was easily done given that there are only two brewers of note in the country, but imagine if the poor old Nayok had had to deal with dozens, or even hundreds, of small breweries instead? Why his recovery fund would hardly have been able to get off the ground, lol.

[Enzian]

3 hours ago, blazes said:

As Lenin said, if you want to know how a society "works", just ask the question, "who whom?".

The Latin phrase most used is cui bono, to whom is it a benefit? Other versions are cui prodest, whom does it profit? and ad cuius bonum, for whose good?

[mtls2005]

ThaiBev and Boon Rawd hold Royal Warrants of Appointment.

 

So they get to tell you which beer can be held.

 

[Bangkok Barry]

2 hours ago, madmitch said:

In the UK the advent of CAMRA and more recently the craft beer brewers have had the effect of making the bigger brewers widen their product range and offer better beers

To their credit, the monopoly brewers in Thailand have done the same, albeit to a miniscule extent. I find Tapper, Leo 8, Cheers Extra and Siam Weizen from Cheers to be half-decent, to the extent that I never now touch Chang, Singha and rarely the traditional Leo. But it is just a <deleted> in the ocean compared to more enlightened countries.

[superal]

4 hours ago, ukrules said:

It is a pathetic and corrupt situation which demonstrates that the large breweries and everyone involved in the legislative system regarding this matter is absolutely rotten to the very core.

 

There should be a full audit of the bank accounts / assets for everyone involved and their families going back for the last 10 to 20 years to find out just how this situation came into being and still exists.

I suspect there will be a massive trail of corruption and bribery

There will be corruption for sure cos that is how Thailand business works . What makes the brewing laws a farce is that I have seen boxes of fake canned Heineken lager , on the back of a motor bike trailer , coming over the Cambodian/ Thai border and being waved in by the Thai immigration . There was a video on you tube showing  the manufacturing in what looked like a dirty Cambodian  workshop .

Further more , there was a time when you could order your favourite beer from an online store but the authorities put a stop on that with the excuse that under age folk were buying it . It is possible to buy some less popular beers from Tops but how do they get round the regulations of production rates ?

[Tich]

Good luck chap, if there is one thing that Thailand is desperate for, it's decent beer !

[bendejo]

4 hours ago, ukrules said:

I suspect there will be a massive trail of corruption and bribery

Yes, and the corrupt *_!***!s will accuse the outsiders of being the corrupt ones.  That's the way it's done.

 

Going after beer nerds, the real menace to society.

 

 

Edited March 5, 2022 by bendejo

[rupert the bear]

blatent corruption and sleaze but a woman and a boat in bkk .her mother just wanted a mill bucks what a bunch of sleaze bags inside and out,theres no law or moral compass,im not going to jail heres the money,how much???well its all over the papers so i guess i must pay.pathetic is a generous term

[Hanuman2547]

Can you take a large growler to a brewpub, have them fill it and then take it home?  It's a common practice in the US.  Or does Thai law prevent you from leaving the premises with a craft beer?

Asking for a friend.

[bristolgeoff]

Very silly really from this gov.the advertising bans for bars are no better,we all know that.The big companies do not want to share the pie

[sammieuk1]

By coincidence its a draft law that's needed ????

[MrJ2U]

"Bangkok’s illicit craft brewers risk arrest under draconian laws"

 

These laws are in place, obviously,  just to protect the myriad of commercial monopolies that are stagnating growth and opportunities. 

 

Until this changes,  Thailand will contiue to deter innovation and fall further behind in economic growth in the region. 

 

Sad fact.