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News
UK being ‘flooded’ with fake YellowTail wines
UK retailers are being “flooded” with counterfeit wines masquerading as popular Australian wine brand YellowTail, which may be the work of Chinese gangs.
As reported by The Mirror, bottles of fake YellowTail Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz and Pinot Grigio have been found in shops across the UK. The wines are said to boast convincing labels that are duping UK retailers into stocking them.
Trading standards officers have launched an investigation following a number of customer complaints about the YellowTail wines being sold at KVK supermarket in Sutton Coldfield in the West Midlands.
The officers seized 41 bottles of the suspect YellowTail, which were confirmed to be fake by brand owner Casella. Similar bottles have been seized from other parts of the UK.
According to The Mirror, trading standards officers believe the counterfeiters are part of an international racket exploiting the UK’s lucrative wine market.
Ewan Lacey, global director of beverage logistics at Hellmann Worldwide Logistics, told the paper that the fakes could be coming from China.
A spokesperson for Birmingham trading standards told The Mirror: “This is a large-scale operation, probably originating abroad, using organised crime gangs in the UK to distribute and sell the products.”
Surely eradicating these sorts of situations were precisely the reason for AWRS existing, and providing full traceability within the supply chain.
Either AWRS is failing completely or is not fit for purpose?
In reality AWRS was never needed to ensure traceability of supply, it’s just more red tape and paperwork, keeping accurate business records is already part of the UK law.
Has AWRS actually achieved anything, either in the genuine and compliant supply chain or stopping illegal imports and duty fraud?
About time a journalist did a few Freedom of information Requests and got some statistics and proof of the real situation.
Sadly it seems the civil service would rather create new onerous processes rather than fix existing systems and make them fit for purpose.
There is too much stupidity and a lack of common sense, even before the fiasco called Brexit or CHIEF replacement …a streamlining and rationalisation of these is needed to ensure compliance and duty collection, but also working practices that are not onerous on small businesses.