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Price of imported wine in Japan hits new high due to weak Yen
A record breaking weak Yen is creating hurdles for Japanese wine importers, with many having to raise their prices by as much as 10% to offset soaring costs.
After months in decline, on 20 October the Japanese Yen slumped to a 32-year low, falling past 150 per US dollar. Just one day after, core consumer inflation was said to have smashed the record 8-year high of 3% announced in September
As reported by Reuters, the adverse economic situation has contributed to the tough business conditions in Japan’s wine industry. Last month, Suzy Iwamoto, owner of Wine & Weekend shop in Central Tokyo was forced to raise prices on imported wine, including those from the America and Europe, by around 10%.
Researcher Teikoku Databank reflected that around 20,000 food and drink items in Japan have gone up in price this year.
According to the figures from the US Department of Agriculture, 70% of the wine consumed in Japan is imported, mostly coming from France, Chile, Italy, and the United States.
Andrew Dunbar, the president of Iconic Wine Japan, which handles the import of around 30 brands, also raised prices on its wine by 10% across the board in September and will likely have to warn distributors of another hike within another few months.
This is especially true of wines from the US, where wine producers are also raising base prices, on top of the drop of the Yen.
It is also found that beverage giants Kirin Holdings Co and Suntory Holdings Japan raised the price on their Beaujolais offerings by 40% or more this year, reducing the range at the same time; a shock as Japan has always been the biggest market for France’s Beaujolais Nouveau wines.
Eric Jean-Pierre Simon Dahler, the owner of Wine Prosperite, which focuses mostly on French wine, told dbAsia that the cost of importing wine in Japan has never been as high as now, and that his clients, laregly on-trade and private customers, have become very cautious about purchasing.
Adding to the Japanese Yen decline, consumer prices have been surging in Japan due to logistics logjams from the Covid pandemic and soaring energy costs caused by the war in Ukraine.