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JAPAN’S IMPORTED WINE MARKET SEVERELY DISRUPTED BY CONTAINER SHORTAGES

By Siulan Law Mathews DipWSET

10-2-2022



Credit: Ian Taylor/Unsplash

Japan’s drinks giants Kirin Group blamed the suspension in sales of imported wines as a result of container shortages for the group’s 20 percent contraction in wine sales in 2021.

The global container shortage has also hit Japan’s another drinks giant Suntory Holdings’ imported wine sales. The group had to stop sales of Australian wines from the end of January.

Kirin’s wine making arm, Mercian, had to suspend sales of 10 Californian wines for 5 months last year due to container shortages.

Imported wines accounted for 40.9 percent of Mercian’s total sales volume.

Though Mercian has resumed sales of imported wines on 8 February, the company cannot rule out sales will not be suspended again.

"We don't know when (the delay of imports) will happen again," Michio Nagabayashi, president of Mercian told reporters during a news conference last week.

Another Japanese drinks giant, Suntory Holdings, is planning to restart sales of Australian wines after April, but they are still worried that tight container supply could hamper this plan.

The group had to suspend sales of Australian wines from the end of January.

In addition to the global container shortage, the company also faced a delay in production at its winery in Australia.

A spokesperson of Suntory told Nikkei Business Review that demand in December last year had surged 40 percent after Japan lifted the state of emergency.

The spokesperson said the surge doubled what the company had expected and they failed to replenish stocks due the very tight global container supply and production issues in Australia.

(the writer can be contacted at: info@thewinechronicle.com)

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