Imported wines may be dearer

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33671, 22 October 1974, Page 23

Imported wines may be dearer

Wine merchants in Christchurch would not be surprised if duty on imported wines were increased by 30 per cent in any mini-Budget the Government might decide to bring down. They say that supplies of i imported wines are already I scarce and that an increase; , of duty of 30 per cent might. -. put the more expensive wines: ( well out of the customer’s, > reach. At the same time, some . restaurateurs are marking up j imported wines by 150 to 200 per cent. Christmas buying, which' I begins generally about No-| ■ ■ vember, is also expected to I

put ill-afforded pressure on very limited supplies. The managing directors of two wine and spirit wholesale companies in Christchurch said last evening that they had received no wore of any increase, but that rumours of the kind were constantly afloat. A 30 per cent increase in duty was not un likely in view of the Government’s intention to damper inflation by reducing spending, they said. Chateau-bottled Frencl i wines and original bottlec German wines would bi among those most affectec by such an increase in duty An increase in sales ta? 'could be a more salutary imeasure, however, as whole I salers would not have t hr

ilsame incentive to hoard supplies in anticipation of a rise f in duty. -; The shortage of imported -(wines in Canterbury could be 11 traced directly to tight import i 1 controls and a shortage of -'world shipping compounded -(by rising freight costs bet: cause of increases in the - price of oil. - i There was now a delay of n four to five months in bring--ling European wines out tc New Zealand, and an addihtional four-week to six-week d delay in their passage from e Auckland to the South Island d New Zealand imported r. wines were not some of the x most expensive in the world y they were only silghtly more :- expensive than Europear e wines in Britain.