Imports of beer, wine, spirits plummet nearly half last year
Imports of beer, wine, spirits plummet nearly half last year
The Kingdom imported $17.89 million worth of beer, wine and spirits last year, down by 49.78 per cent from $35.61 million in 2019, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce.
Chan Davy, founder of Far East Import Export Co Ltd, an authorised importer and distributor of PengWine, a boutique wine from the Maipo Valley of Chile, notes that the global Covid-19 crisis has put severe stress on the wine import industry.
“We have been importing red wine from Chile since before the Covid-19 outbreak. So far we have not sold it all,” said Davy.
Heng Noeun, an accounting officer at Phnom Penh Beer Co Ltd, said that even the local beer market had been shaken up by the pandemic, leading to a significant drop in sales of beers, wine and other spirits to serve demand related to tourism and entertainment.
“Covid-19 has led to a global economic crisis that has led to a tendency to reduce spending on unnecessary goods,” he said.
There are 13 registered brewery/beverage plant operators in the Kingdom, data from the Ministry of Industry, Science, Technology and Innovation show.
These are Inter-Mattrid Beverage (Cambodia) Co Ltd, Hanuman Beverages Co Ltd, Vattanac Brewery Co Ltd, Ana Water and Smiler Beverage Co Ltd, Asian Sunrise Co Ltd, Heineken (Cambodia) Co Ltd, Cambrew Ltd, Daun Penh Food and Beverage Co Ltd, Khmer Beverage Co Ltd, Far East Import Export Co Ltd, Kingdom Breweries (Cambodia) Ltd, Media GB Enterprise Co Ltd, and Phnom Penh Beer Co Ltd.
