Thai Wine Association has expressed strong disagreement with the
government’s plan to ban alcohol sales during Buddhist holidays. Vice president Kim Wachtveitl said the measure would destroy the local
wine industry as well as ecotourism, such as wine-tour packages
organised by local wineries.
Kim, who is also director for business development at Siam Winery
Trading Plus, said the Public Health Ministry was preparing legislation
to ban the sale of alcoholic beverages, including beer, wine and hard
liquors, during Buddhist holidays. The authority will also order local wine producers to put labels
with warning images showing accidents caused by drunk-driving on
bottles. He said such measures would shock and confuse wine consumers, particularly foreign tourists.
The Thai Wine Association brings together seven major local wine
producers, including Siam Winery, PB Valley (Khao Yai), GranMonte,
Chateau de Brumes and Mae Chan Winery. They employ more than 1,500 people, and have a total production of about 1 million bottles annually. "Unlike hard liquor, wine should be treated as an agricultural
product being created through a natural production process," Kim said. He characterised what the government intended to do as a "blanked solution".
"Most important, we think that the government should ensure that
this social issue should be tackled intelligently. They should
communicate with many concerned bodies, such as the Public Health
Ministry, the Tourism and Sports Ministry and local associations that
represent the private sector," he said. He added that the government should educate its people to drink
responsibly. Similar to what has been done in the UK, adults should be
informed of the units of alcohol they can safely drink each day to
prevent drunk driving and other health-related concerns. "Our ‘cellar-door’ sales contribute between 30 per cent and 40 per
cent of our wine business," Kim said, referring to selling wine
directly from the wineries. He said the proposed ban would hit those
sales hard.
In some countries and states, such as Australia and California,
local governments have a strong policy to promote wine tourism as a
mechanism to attract money into the country. There are currently about 80 million tourists coming into France
every year to enjoy French wines in addition to other tourism
attractions such as beaches, golf, shopping and culture.
"Thailand itself should promote wine tourism as a new innovative
attraction to attract inbound tourists and to rebuild the country’s
image, which has been destroyed by local unrest and political problem,"
Kim said.
Prin Malakul, corporate affairs director of Thai Asia Pacific
Brewery, local producer and distributor of Heineken beer, said that the
company agrees with the government’s measure to ban the sale of
alcoholic beverages on Buddhist holidays. "In practice, we have been asked by the government and related
authorities for cooperation to stop selling alcohol on the holidays.
And I think this measure will be quite acceptable also for foreign
travellers as well," he said.
Prin said that he however disagreed with the labelling measure. "After such labelling measure were applied to cigarettes, we have not seen any drop in their sales." Prin said that global studies show that alcohol does not have any health impact if people drink it appropriately.
The best solution is to provide the right education and
understanding to consumers regarding the responsible and non-aggressive
drinking of alcoholic beverages.
