Euro Depreciation & Zero Tariff: Beer Imports Soar 11 Times

It’s told from Zhejiang Inspection and Quarantine Bureau that from January to June this year, at Zhejiang ports (except Ningbo) beer imports reached 8623 tons, with the value of $ 9,780,000, respectively, increase of 11 times and 5.3 times year on year, the growing rate of beer is far more than that of the imported wine.

It is understood that alcohol and maltose content of European beers are often higher than that of domestic beer, and European beers have better taste, more and more Chinese consumers like to drink imported beer. "Good beer of imported brand is very popular, or even we have no enough beer to sell." a Wenzhou trading company principal Chen Xiaoyong said.

Chen believes that the rapid growth of beer imports and sales is closely related to the continued depreciation of the euro. Since last year, the euro depreciated by about 18%, that is to say, the price of imported European beer has a discount of nearly 20%. imported beer price in the domestic market is down by 40% or 50%, in the past the high-end beer sells at about 300 yuan, now sells at more than 100 yuan, the wholesale price of the low-end originally was less than 10 yuan, now generally 4 to 5 yuan, equal to the domestic brands of beer prices.

Insiders believe that this year, the overall export situation is grim, many exporters turn to do the import trade. According to Chen Xiaoyong, many Wenzhou’s local export traders start the import beer business, now the beer importers reached to more than 40, while last year the number was less than 10. He said importers increased by 3 times, the amount of imported beer naturally multiplied. He expected in the second half imports of beer would still increase, his company planned to import beers of about $10 million this year.

In recent years, Wenzhou Inspection and Quarantine Bureau takes various measures to promote growth in imports, makes the imported food clearance shortened from 15 weekdays to three weekdays, reduces the frequency and quantity of testing, improve the efficiency of customs clearance, and effectively reduce the cost of imports. compared to wine, beer has a advantage of "zero tariff", allowing more importers to scramble for imported beer. (www.chinainout.com)