Bringing Wine To Thailand

[thaipod]

I'm about to go to Australia to see a friend who is a wine lover and has a large cellar of wine and buys wine at auctions and has suggested he would like to give me 3 or 4 cases of wine as a gift to bring home and has suggested to just pay the duty .

Has anyone had any experience in bringing wine in to Thailand and what would be the best procedure and the duty .

[melvinmelvin]

I have enquired about that at the Customs Office at swampy about 3 times.

They said;

can not arrive with more than one bottle and just pay in red sector and leave with bottles

can bring in alcohol but will need to have an import license arranged in advance

[JohnC]

My Italian neighbour brought some cases of Italian wine back, declared them so he could pay the duty and they confiscated the lot!

[GreenSnapper]

My Italian neighbour brought some cases of Italian wine back, declared them so he could pay the duty and they confiscated the lot!

They work really hard to keep the ridiculous prices for bad wine in Thailand.

[Gers1873]

Saw a recent television show where they 'claimed' import duty on wine was 400%. I have no way of vlidating the accuracy of said information....... id true then thats bloody steep.

[nisakiman]

Saw a recent television show where they 'claimed' import duty on wine was 400%. I have no way of vlidating the accuracy of said information....... id true then thats bloody steep.

It was 430% when you added it all up a few years ago when I was looking into importing wine into Thailand commercially.

[cardholder]

Posts 2 and 3 sum it up.

You can't !

[CWMcMurray]

Don't do it... as other have advised, if you bring in more than the duty free limit it is not just a matter of paying the import duty. Wine and all other alcoholic beverages require the importer to hold an import permit ....

So like others have mentioned, if you try to bring in a couple of cases, they will be confiscated by customs

[vtjforyou]

Bring as much as you can in your luggages as they won't find your bottles...

[Crossy]

Bring as much as you can in your luggages as they won't find your bottles...

Until they x-ray your bags in the green channel that is, are you prepared to take the risk??

Remember if you get caught there could be a world of hurt for smuggling or they may like your face and let you go. Up2U.

[Chivas]

Bring as much as you can in your luggages as they won't find your bottles...

Until they x-ray your bags in the green channel that is, are you prepared to take the risk??

Remember if you get caught there could be a world of hurt for smuggling or they may like your face and let you go. Up2U.

Why would anyone x-ray bags in a green channel ? Surely no customs officer is expecting bottles of wine sown into the lining ?

Bags are frequently screened for contraband before they are even picked up by passengers, but that doesnt extend yet to wine !!

[Crossy]

Bring as much as you can in your luggages as they won't find your bottles...

Until they x-ray your bags in the green channel that is, are you prepared to take the risk??

Remember if you get caught there could be a world of hurt for smuggling or they may like your face and let you go. Up2U.

Why would anyone x-ray bags in a green channel ? Surely no customs officer is expecting bottles of wine sown into the lining ?

Bags are frequently screened for contraband before they are even picked up by passengers, but that doesnt extend yet to wine !!

When did you last arrive at Swampy?

X-ray screening of random passengers passing through the green channel is routine.

And yes, they are looking for cigarettes and alcohol over the limit, there are a few threads on the subject of 'excessive' fines for those caught.

[Farang0tang]

Can you bring 1 bottle of wine, plus 1 bottle of whisky into LOS?

I posed this question to the duty free staff in Dubai, and they produced a quick-guide chart, with list of countres along the top, and down the side little images of wine bottle, whisky, cigarettes, etc. - with a value to show how much is permitted.

For Thailand the value was +1 for wine, and then also +1 for whisky.

Therefore she said I could bring legally both 1 of wine and 1 of whisky. Was she correct? My thoughts were only 1 or the other.

[Chivas]

Bring as much as you can in your luggages as they won't find your bottles...

Until they x-ray your bags in the green channel that is, are you prepared to take the risk??

Remember if you get caught there could be a world of hurt for smuggling or they may like your face and let you go. Up2U.

Why would anyone x-ray bags in a green channel ? Surely no customs officer is expecting bottles of wine sown into the lining ?

Bags are frequently screened for contraband before they are even picked up by passengers, but that doesnt extend yet to wine !!

When did you last arrive at Swampy?

X-ray screening of random passengers passing through the green channel is routine.

And yes, they are looking for cigarettes and alcohol over the limit, there are a few threads on the subject of 'excessive' fines for those caught.

I can say from utter honestly I have never ever seen anyone questioned or x-rayed at Swampy or Don Maung in 141 incoming trips. Am sorry but bags are not frequently screened from my extensive experience. Have never been with any others either experiencing searches, who have likewise all arrived on international flights ??

[Crossy]

I can say from utter honestly I have never ever seen anyone questioned or x-rayed at Swampy or Don Maung in 141 incoming trips. Am sorry but bags are not frequently screened from my extensive experience. Have never been with any others either experiencing searches, who have likewise all arrived on international flights ??

It's your risk and your money (or even freedom) on the line so it's entirely up to you if you choose the break the law.

I fly through Swampy once a month or so, bags x-rayed at the green channel maybe 20% of the times, evidently I arrive from high-risk locations.

I assume you have seen the x-ray machines by the green channel, they are not there for decoration.

[melvinmelvin]

I have often seen luggage being opened and searched through in the green sector.

(Never happened to me though.)

[melvinmelvin]

Can you bring 1 bottle of wine, plus 1 bottle of whisky into LOS?

I posed this question to the duty free staff in Dubai, and they produced a quick-guide chart, with list of countres along the top, and down the side little images of wine bottle, whisky, cigarettes, etc. - with a value to show how much is permitted.

For Thailand the value was +1 for wine, and then also +1 for whisky.

Therefore she said I could bring legally both 1 of wine and 1 of whisky. Was she correct? My thoughts were only 1 or the other.

Thats my understanding also, 1 bottle only (whisky or wine).

[onionluke]

I used bring in 10 l sometimes 12 l flying in from Macau . It was plastic fantastic and in wine boxes . I got searched but the guy didn't recognise what it was . He was more interested in the box of liquers that I had bought for the oldies in the soi . The customs bloke believed he had caught me with some kind of drug in little bottles . He was a bit embarrased when he found it was a box of chocs . Or something like that . I always had tins of kippers , olives . chorizos and stuff and they never questioned the wine boxes .

[Chivas]

I can say from utter honestly I have never ever seen anyone questioned or x-rayed at Swampy or Don Maung in 141 incoming trips. Am sorry but bags are not frequently screened from my extensive experience. Have never been with any others either experiencing searches, who have likewise all arrived on international flights ??

It's your risk and your money (or even freedom) on the line so it's entirely up to you if you choose the break the law.

I fly through Swampy once a month or so, bags x-rayed at the green channel maybe 20% of the times, evidently I arrive from high-risk locations.

I assume you have seen the x-ray machines by the green channel, they are not there for decoration.

Hang on please ?? I have never said I broke the law as regards bringing in contraband, so dont imply that I do, or did.

Sorry but I do not not believe anyones bags are x-rayed 20% of the time-period.

By your definition it would be fair to say Ive had 28 searches, where I've had none whatsoever in reality. And I repeat I have NEVER seen anyones bags being even remotely searched.

[endure]

You're entitled to import 1 litre of alcohol. That's it.

[endure]

I can say from utter honestly I have never ever seen anyone questioned or x-rayed at Swampy or Don Maung in 141 incoming trips. Am sorry but bags are not frequently screened from my extensive experience. Have never been with any others either experiencing searches, who have likewise all arrived on international flights ??

It's your risk and your money (or even freedom) on the line so it's entirely up to you if you choose the break the law.

I fly through Swampy once a month or so, bags x-rayed at the green channel maybe 20% of the times, evidently I arrive from high-risk locations.

I assume you have seen the x-ray machines by the green channel, they are not there for decoration.

Hang on please ?? I have never said I broke the law as regards bringing in contraband, so dont imply that I do, or did.

Sorry but I do not not believe anyones bags are x-rayed 20% of the time-period.

But you've just been told by someone who it has happened to that it happens to him. Why would you call him a liar?

[Chivas]

Because the individual is implying that probably on average 20% of bags are screened /xray-ed.

Am sorry but theres not one other TV poster in existance that has had this experience-none.

[Crossy]

I did not mean to imply that you personally broke any law, sorry if you read it like that, it certainly was not the intent.

Like you I am simply relating MY experiences, are you suggesting that I am lying? To what end?

It is entirely up to an individual whether they choose to break a well known an publicised law, it is not our place to encourage it (indeed it would contravene forum rules to do so).

[Crossy]

Am sorry but theres not one other TV poster in existance that has had this experience-none.

Post #16 has one. Unless of course you suggest that the fact that he personally has not been checked means that is doesn't happen.

[endure]

Because the individual is implying that probably on average 20% of bags are screened /xray-ed.

He's not implying anything at all. He's stating his own experiences.

[Chivas]

Ok guys you win.

On average 20% of people walking through the green channel are screened/x-rayed on a daily basis.

Nobody but nobody has ever experiened or seen this, but as a moderator states it everybody else must shut up or be deleted from membership ??

No problem-I'll shut up.

[Crossy]

Nobody but nobody has ever experiened or seen this, but as a moderator states it everybody else must shut up or be deleted from membership ??.

Er, excuse me but where did a moderator make this statement? I'm posting my personal experiences here as a normal member and regular traveller.

[endure]

Surely you mean nobody on Thaivisa which represents a vanishingly small percentage of the people who actually pass through customs at Suwanaphoom every day?

[smokie36]

Am sorry but theres not one other TV poster in existance that has had this experience-none.

I've had my bags X-rayed a couple of times.

[MiG16]

Chivas I don't understand

on the one hand you get quite worked up about making clear you have never broken law on bringing in contraband (just borrowing your words, I don't what it exactly mean or include)

Yet on the other hand you want to encourage someone else to risk doing something illegal on the chance that 'you'' have not seen anyone get x-rayed at the green channel?

By the way - I had my bag x-rayed while going through the green channel exactly two months ago. I don't travel that much - so it would be almost possible to estimate that I get screened 100% of the time that may have raised the national average a little?

Or maybe they don't X-ray anyone else and I was the very rare exception cos I look so suspicious