Will passing Progressive Liquor Bill help small producers and consumers?

[snoop1130]

 

Thailand not only ranks first in the alcoholic beverage market in South East Asia, but is also the first among ASEAN countries with highest consumption per capita, at 8.3 litres/year. Even though there are numerous brands of alcohol on the supermarket shelves and annual sales are 300 billion baht, 93% of the brands are owned by few giant corporations, namely Boon Rawd Breweries (Leo, Singha), Thai Beverage (Chang, Archa) and Thai Asia Pacific Breweries (Tiger, Cheers). Other smaller local producers and imported beer account for a less than 1% market share.

 

Under the current law, the home brewing of alcohol is restricted and small to medium size alcohol producers are not able to obtain a license, since the Ministry of Finance requires 10 million baht capital and a production of 100,000 to one million litres per year in order to get a license. The “Progressive Liquor Act”, a draft proposed by the Move Forward Party is aimed at amending section 153 of the excise tax law of 2017, which requires alcohol producers to register for a license under some strict exceptions and high-cost criteria. The regulation has been criticised for favouring large corporate producers and hindering small to medium size producers from entering the market. The proposed amendments would reduce the criteria, so that small and medium size businesses can enter the market, allow home brewing for household consumption and allow unlicensed distilling of alcohol.

 

The founder of the Beer People Group, who advocates for the bill, Thanakorn Tuamsahgeam, stated that the purpose of amending the law is to provide consumers with more choice and to distribute 10-20% of the market share (up to 60 billion baht) to small producers.

 

Full Story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/will-passing-progressive-liquor-bill-help-small-producers-and-consumers/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2023-05-04

 

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[stoner]

alcohol should be considered a class 5 drug/narcotic. 

[dinsdale]

28 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

93% of the brands are owned by few giant corporations, namely Boon Rawd Breweries (Leo, Singha), Thai Beverage (Chang, Archa) and Thai Asia Pacific Breweries (Tiger, Cheers).

This means 93% of all Thai beer is rubbish. No argument from me. Anything half decent in the other 7% is expensive. 

[transam]

13 minutes ago, stoner said:

alcohol should be considered a class 5 drug/narcotic. 

Off-topic, Reverend...........

[stoner]

1 minute ago, transam said:

Off-topic, Reverend...........

how is it off topic ? this thread is about alcohol laws....i put forth my comment of how i see alcohol should be classified. 

[transam]

34 minutes ago, stoner said:

how is it off topic ? this thread is about alcohol laws....i put forth my comment of how i see alcohol should be classified. 

How YOU see alcohol laws, don't include me in your theory....????

[zzaa09]

40 minutes ago, dinsdale said:

This means 93% of all Thai beer is rubbish. No argument from me. Anything half decent in the other 7% is expensive. 

Some of the Thai-based craft beers are quite lovely, yet restricted to consuming on premise only.......and not a value because of their fashionable prices. 

 

Beer Lao is quite available commercially, as it appears to be the favourite among discerning locals [Farang/Thai] - yet not everyday affordable. 

[stoner]

5 minutes ago, transam said:

How YOU see alcohol laws, don't include me in your theory....????

vroom. 

[dinsdale]

3 minutes ago, zzaa09 said:

Some of the Thai-based craft beers are quite lovely, yet restricted to consuming on premise only.......and not a value because of their fashionable prices. 

 

Beer Lao is quite available commercially, as it appears to be the favourite among discerning locals [Farang/Thai] - yet not everyday affordable. 

I like Lao Dark but it's around the Bt60 mark for a small bottle. I can easily down 2 rather rapidly but not something I can afford to buy all the time. It's an oligopoly and that's the way they want to keep it. Must be hundreds of breweries/micro breweries in Australia with thousands of labels.

[connda]

3 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Other smaller local producers and imported beer account for a less than 1% market share.

And they want to keep it that way - with 99% of the revenue going to the 99% owning the monopolies.  Monopolies detest competition and free-markets no matter how small. 

[spidermike007]

Yes. An emphatic yes. Thai beer is only rivaled by Serbian beer, and the mass produced American beers, in terms of the very low quality. Poor grade of hops, barely, and the production process seems to be entirely lacking in pride. Typical of the big monopolies. Even a large production beer, like Beer Laos blows away any Thai beer, hands down.

 

Thailand desperately needs a vital craft beer movement, and the youth are ready to mount it. If only the dinosaurs would stop protecting their "bankers" and move out of the way. In other words, allow some progress, you despised bunch of dinosaurs! 

 
Boon Rawd Brewery, which makes Singha, and ThaiBev, which brews Chang, the country’s best-selling beer, are owned and run by two of the wealthiest families in Thailand. Through longevity and political influence, these two breweries have dominated Thai beer for nearly a century, forcing out or crushing any competition, foreign or domestic. And we all know how they easily accomplish this. 
 
Thaopipob Linjittkorn, or Thao as he is more popularly known, a lawyer and homebrewer, was very publicly arrested in 2017 for making beer. He used that publicity to win an election to Parliament in 2019, along with 80 other members of the Future Forward Party. This progressive, pro-democracy party included in its platform a detailed plan to deregulate the beer industry, as well as a proposal for the legalization of marijuana, citing both as ways of putting money into the pockets of small businesses and local farmers. 
 
The opposition that Future Forward was up against is a military-backed, hardline government that supports the duopoly with strict regulations that allow it to control over 99% of Thailand’s estimated 180 billion baht ($5.8 billion) beer industry. The duopoly was originally made untouchable with the first Thai Liquor Control Act in 1950, a law which has been amended several times since to push legality even further out of reach of any small brewer. Prayuth's administration has done much to reinforce the isolationist and nationalistic policies that Phibul established in the 1940s and ’50s, and has called again and again for citizens to display a certain level of “Thainess,” which the PM defines in part as unquestioning loyalty to the government. Do not be disobedient! 
 
For small breweries, it requires production of at least 100,000 liters (852 barrels) but no greater than 1,000,000 liters (8,520 BBLs), and stipulates that all beer must be sold on the premises. At the same time, the minimum amount for an industrial license was increased from one million liters to 10 million liters (85,200 BBLs) per year, as well as requiring that the brewer demonstrate available capital of at least 10 million baht ($320,000).

 

Just to make sure small brewers were thoroughly intimidated, the rewrite also increased inflated penalties. Fines were increased from their original, almost quaint 200 baht ($6) for possession of bootleg alcohol to 10,000 ($300). For actually brewing without a license, fines were increased from 5,000 baht ($150) to a range of 50,000–100,000 baht ($1,600–$3,200), plus jail time. Reporting in 2017, The Bangkok Post estimated that in order to meet the new regulations, a brewer would need to have a billion baht—around $30 million—in start-up capital. 

For some, craft beer is associated with anti-establishment politics. “It’s very similar to the French Revolution, which started from a cafe in Paris, where people drank coffee,” says Taopiphop. “The fuel of the revolution is not coffee any more, it’s craft beer.” Taopiphop adds that, after the 2014 coup in Thailand, many pro-democracy activists chose to meet in Bangkok’s craft beer bars.

 

If only the younger Thais were allowed to express themselves, be inventive, be creative, be industrious, and use their smarts and ambition, Thailand could have a future. Craft beer is needed here, and so are the young entrepreneurs. But, that future appears to be suppressed at every turn by dinosaurs, who only answer to money, money, and even more money. Money is the God of lesser men. The money first attitude is holding back Thailand on so many levels. 

[freedomnow]

9 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

but is also the first among ASEAN countries with highest consumption per capita, at 8.3 litres/year

Hahaha.....????

 

That is like 3 nights worth for an average expat.....mid-week.

[freedomnow]

7 hours ago, zzaa09 said:

Some of the Thai-based craft beers are quite lovely, yet restricted to consuming on premise only.......and not a value because of their fashionable prices. 

 

Beer Lao is quite available commercially, as it appears to be the favourite among discerning locals [Farang/Thai] - yet not everyday affordable. 

Yes, it's a crying shame...40-45 Baht for a big bottle of the stuff in Laos.

Least hangover-y beer on the planet for me.

[Andycoops]

10 hours ago, zzaa09 said:

Some of the Thai-based craft beers are quite lovely, yet restricted to consuming on premise only.......and not a value because of their fashionable prices. 

 

Beer Lao is quite available commercially, as it appears to be the favourite among discerning locals [Farang/Thai] - yet not everyday affordable. 

I live in Isaan and would love to be able to buy beer Lao but it's not available locally anywhere.

I only see it occasionally and usually in Bangkok and Pattaya and other large cities.

[hotchilli]

12 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Other smaller local producers and imported beer account for a less than 1% market share.

Something that should definitely change.

[hotchilli]

11 hours ago, dinsdale said:

Anything half decent in the other 7% is expensive.

Yes, imported fine ale is priced out of the market place.. 

Keep the fat cat family monopolies happy, buy buying their cheap rubbish.

[dinsdale]

50 minutes ago, Andycoops said:

I live in Isaan and would love to be able to buy beer Lao but it's not available locally anywhere.

I only see it occasionally and usually in Bangkok and Pattaya and other large cities.

Cj More (previously Cj Express). If you've got one of these in town they sell it. Bt58 I think. This group is reasonably new to Issan. I would check google maps as there might be one in your neibourhood. I think Tops also sell it.

 

[Bangkok Barry]

1 hour ago, Andycoops said:

I live in Isaan and would love to be able to buy beer Lao but it's not available locally anywhere.

I only see it occasionally and usually in Bangkok and Pattaya and other large cities.

I know of a place in Kalasin that sells it, pretty much opposite the exit from the Immigration office car park. Tipped off by an AN member, gawd bless him. Not a cheap place though. I buy cases of IPA which work out at 74 baht a small bottle. whereas when I occasionally see it in a supermarket it sells for around 10 baht less. But needs must.

[Bangkok Barry]

8 minutes ago, dinsdale said:

Cj More (previously Cj Express). If you've got one of these in town they sell it. Bt58 I think. This group is reasonably new to Issan. I would check google maps as there might be one in your neibourhood. I think Tops also sell it.

 

We've had one open recently, but it doesn't sell it. Up to each individual store manager, I guess. Our small Lotus's sells a wider variety of beer than the large Lotus's supermarket.

[Bangkok Barry]

Last week I bought a Thai white IPA beer that was/had to be brewed in Vietnam and imported into Thailand. Hence the 99 baht price tag, almost double the price of a monopoly beer.

[dinsdale]

6 minutes ago, Bangkok Barry said:

We've had one open recently, but it doesn't sell it. Up to each individual store manager, I guess. Our small Lotus's sells a wider variety of beer than the large Lotus's supermarket.

Did you ask? Maybe they were out of stock. I'm not sure if individual managers have a choice or maybe it wasn't selling so they pulled it from  that store. Might be worth another look?

[dinsdale]

8 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Poor grade of hops, barely,

Thai beers also use rice and not wanting to be picky but it's an oligopoly not a duopoly as there are 3 companies. Use to be two. Thai Asia Pacific Breweries was registered in 1993 and began operations in 1995. Doesn't really matter if it's 2 or 3 they control the market, the control govt decisions in regards to maintaining control and all 3 produce cat's piss.

[HaoleBoy]

9 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Yes. An emphatic yes. Thai beer is only rivaled by Serbian beer, and the mass produced American beers, in terms of the very low quality. Poor grade of hops, barely, and the production process seems to be entirely lacking in pride. Typical of the big monopolies. Even a large production beer, like Beer Laos blows away any Thai beer, hands down.

 

Thailand desperately needs a vital craft beer movement, and the youth are ready to mount it. If only the dinosaurs would stop protecting their "bankers" and move out of the way. In other words, allow some progress, you despised bunch of dinosaurs! 

 
Boon Rawd Brewery, which makes Singha, and ThaiBev, which brews Chang, the country’s best-selling beer, are owned and run by two of the wealthiest families in Thailand. Through longevity and political influence, these two breweries have dominated Thai beer for nearly a century, forcing out or crushing any competition, foreign or domestic. And we all know how they easily accomplish this. 
 
Thaopipob Linjittkorn, or Thao as he is more popularly known, a lawyer and homebrewer, was very publicly arrested in 2017 for making beer. He used that publicity to win an election to Parliament in 2019, along with 80 other members of the Future Forward Party. This progressive, pro-democracy party included in its platform a detailed plan to deregulate the beer industry, as well as a proposal for the legalization of marijuana, citing both as ways of putting money into the pockets of small businesses and local farmers. 
 
The opposition that Future Forward was up against is a military-backed, hardline government that supports the duopoly with strict regulations that allow it to control over 99% of Thailand’s estimated 180 billion baht ($5.8 billion) beer industry. The duopoly was originally made untouchable with the first Thai Liquor Control Act in 1950, a law which has been amended several times since to push legality even further out of reach of any small brewer. Prayuth's administration has done much to reinforce the isolationist and nationalistic policies that Phibul established in the 1940s and ’50s, and has called again and again for citizens to display a certain level of “Thainess,” which the PM defines in part as unquestioning loyalty to the government. Do not be disobedient! 
 
For small breweries, it requires production of at least 100,000 liters (852 barrels) but no greater than 1,000,000 liters (8,520 BBLs), and stipulates that all beer must be sold on the premises. At the same time, the minimum amount for an industrial license was increased from one million liters to 10 million liters (85,200 BBLs) per year, as well as requiring that the brewer demonstrate available capital of at least 10 million baht ($320,000).

 

Just to make sure small brewers were thoroughly intimidated, the rewrite also increased inflated penalties. Fines were increased from their original, almost quaint 200 baht ($6) for possession of bootleg alcohol to 10,000 ($300). For actually brewing without a license, fines were increased from 5,000 baht ($150) to a range of 50,000–100,000 baht ($1,600–$3,200), plus jail time. Reporting in 2017, The Bangkok Post estimated that in order to meet the new regulations, a brewer would need to have a billion baht—around $30 million—in start-up capital. 

For some, craft beer is associated with anti-establishment politics. “It’s very similar to the French Revolution, which started from a cafe in Paris, where people drank coffee,” says Taopiphop. “The fuel of the revolution is not coffee any more, it’s craft beer.” Taopiphop adds that, after the 2014 coup in Thailand, many pro-democracy activists chose to meet in Bangkok’s craft beer bars.

 

If only the younger Thais were allowed to express themselves, be inventive, be creative, be industrious, and use their smarts and ambition, Thailand could have a future. Craft beer is needed here, and so are the young entrepreneurs. But, that future appears to be suppressed at every turn by dinosaurs, who only answer to money, money, and even more money. Money is the God of lesser men. The money first attitude is holding back Thailand on so many levels. 

Well stated.  Leaves out whatever change happened last year made by the ruling Gov.  The change was just window dressing though.  How does Phuket get away with producing their own craft beer or is this done out of country?  Chalawan and others ....

 

A good Craft Beer scene would increase jobs for the younger generation - the brewers, the creative marketing (can illustration) and at the Thai establishments that sell their product.

 

One big problem local craft beer makers have is pricing.   They don't have the shipping costs or import tax that foreign craft beer have yet the locals price the same as imported craft beers.

[dallen52]

12 hours ago, dinsdale said:

This means 93% of all Thai beer is rubbish. No argument from me. Anything half decent in the other 7% is expensive. 

They taste like p*ss water and then they put ice in.

A few, very few, decent tasting ones are rare, and expensive. 

[dallen52]

48 minutes ago, Bangkok Barry said:

Last week I bought a Thai white IPA beer that was/had to be brewed in Vietnam and imported into Thailand. Hence the 99 baht price tag, almost double the price of a monopoly beer.

You will find many thais just want alcohol content. 

Hence the over the counter shots of gut rot available.

I enjoy my beer ???? for its quality and taste and body and aroma. 

Something that's not to be found in thai monopolies offerings.

[dinsdale]

For future reference:

A monopoly market is where there [is] one seller and a large number of buyers. A duopoly market is where there are two sellers and a large number of buyers ..... . An oligopoly market is where there are [a] few sellers and a large number of buyers.

https://data-flair.training/blogs/market-structure/

The beer market in Thailand is therefore an oligopoly.

[Skeptic7]

My fridge is kept well stocked but never with The Big 3 swills...Singha, Leo or Chang. ????

Some Thai craft beers I enjoy + Beer Lao Dark & the IPA (when I can find it) and the regular Lager occasionally are all far superior to those almost undrinkable Thai Big 3.

 

 

 

[jacko45k]

1 minute ago, Skeptic7 said:

My fridge is kept well stocked but never with The Big 3 swills...Singha, Leo or Chang

Not impressed, what on earth is that green stuff taking up beer space on the top shelf of picture #1?

[dinsdale]

1 hour ago, Bangkok Barry said:

I know of a place in Kalasin that sells it, pretty much opposite the exit from the Immigration office car park. Tipped off by an AN member, gawd bless him. Not a cheap place though. I buy cases of IPA which work out at 74 baht a small bottle. whereas when I occasionally see it in a supermarket it sells for around 10 baht less. But needs must.

Indeed. It's a good little alcohol and cigs place. Kalasin also has a Cj More.

[khunjeff]

"A public health researcher said in an interview that he supports a competitive market but he is concerned that more consumption could lead to increased problems in society and for the health of consumers, such as accidents, domestic violence and so on."

 

It's really stretching credulity to suggest that having more brands and producers will lead to more consumption, and to go from there to make the wild claim that microbrews will cause domestic violence!

 

In fact, it's hard to believe that consumption would increase at all. More likely, drinkers would just substitute good beer for the bad beer that they currently buy.