Liquor economy?｜ Macau Moutai has more parallel imports than Hong Kong and mainland wine merchants, and the reason is 40%

[Macau “Eaconamaidh Liquor” Sreath 3]Hong Kong will reduce taxes on spirits in mid-October to encourage the development of the spirits economy. Across the sea, Macau has already developed a different “spirit economy” – ten bottles of Maotai are tied under the skirt and legs, Maotai is filled into shower gel bottles, and Maotai is even hidden in BB cars and smuggled from Macau to Zhuhai “makes a decision”. Three successive reports investigated why Macau became a “destination” for Moutai smuggling and created another “spirit economy”.
Macau wine buyers check that the market is filled with a large number of imported Moutai products, large quantities and low prices, and then brought to mainland with smugglers. In terms of the regular spirits economy, wine buyers believe that Hong Kong is also lower than Macau, because Macau has low alcohol taxes and high-end travelers are very generous “drink 10 or 200,000 bottles of wine.”

There are signs of Guizhou Feitian Moutai on the shelves of several supermarkets and even 7-11 convenience stores in Macau. In a supermarket chain in Taipa, a 500ml bottle of Moutai was sold at a special price of only $2,150. The shopkeeper said that several boxes of 12 per box are sold almost every day on if necessary.

Kenny Ou, assistant manager of Xin Weihao, the sole distributor of Kweichow Moutai Group in Macau, admitted that the Moutai sold in some stores is not supplied by them, but imported it is parallel. Many parallel imports flow into Macau, along with low alcohol taxes, resulting in cheaper prices.

▼ Moutai is available in many places in Macau▼

Reason 1: Moutai will be imported in parallel “returning” to Macau

To maintain Moutai’s market price, the distillery strictly allocates the amount of product from distributors in different regions to ensure a balance between supply and demand. Moutai sales in Europe, America and Africa may not have been as expected, with some distributors selling their remaining Moutai to Macau to supply supermarkets and restaurants.

Kou said, together with Macau’s “perfect smuggling system”, a double smuggling chain was formed – smuggled Moutai was sent from overseas to Macau, and then from Macau to the mainland, the making Moutai very high in circulation, actually selling to places where they were. is there a request.
The increase in parallel imports could cause the selling price to be lower than the ex-factory price and cost, making Moutai lower. Distributors who engage in parallel importing remove the logistics code on the wine bottles so that they are not held liable by the winery.

Reason 2: Macau’s liquor tax is low, and Moutai’s import price is 11%, half as low as Hong Kong’s price

The reason we chose to parallel import Moutai to the mainland via Macau instead of Hong Kong is because the tax on spirits in Macau is lower. For spirits with an alcohol concentration of 30% or higher, the Macao government charges an ad valorem tax of 10% of the import price, as well as a special tax of NT$20 per liter based on alcohol content. Take Feitian Moutai 500ml 53% for example, the special tax is 5.3 yuan.

Ou Jiahao said that for a bottle of Moutai in Macau, the tax collected is about 11% of the import price. According to what he learned from Hong Kong retailers, after Hong Kong lowered the tax on spirits in mid-October, the tax charged on a bottle of Moutai in Hong Kong was about 25 % of import price. Even if Hong Kong reduces taxes, the cost of importing Moutai to Macau is still lower than that of Hong Kong.

Reason 3: Chinese consumers have a strong consumption power of 100,000 or 200,000 bottles of wine just drinking

In Xinweihao special store in Xinkou, the price of Feitian Moutai is slightly more expensive than supermarkets in Macau In 2024, Feitian Moutai sold for 2,700 yuan, and in 1979, Feitian Moutai sold for 152,000 yuan. The most expensive and “oldest” product in the shop is the 500ml Moutai produced in 1915, which comes with a pear wood collection box and costs up to 380,000 yuan a wine.

He came in and bought without thinking so much… Some of those who were so luxurious, we were surprised, 10 or 200,000 bottles of wine he just drank.

Ou Jiahao, Assistant Manager of Kweichow Moutai Macau Distributor

After Hong Kong reduced the tax on spirits, the price gap between spirits in Hong Kong and Macau has narrowed, but Au Jiahao is still confident that Macau’s Moutai sales will continue to beat Hong Kong’s. He pointed out that mainland tourists who visit Macao make up more than 70% of the total, and most of them have high spending power. Moutai in Macau is mainly sold to the six major gaming companies to entertain guests. For example, when the Parisian Hotel opened in 2018, it ordered a set of three types of Moutai liquor in the shape of the Eiffel Tower, in gold, silver and copper.

Perhaps coming to Macau is Luxury Travel (luxury travel), go to famous stores to buy bags, drink fine wine, eat Michelin … high spending power travelers, I’m not saying no in Hong Kong, Hong Kong simply has many other spirits options, such as whiskey, five grain beer, and national cellar.

Ou Jiahao, Assistant Manager of Kweichow Moutai Macau Distributor

Reason 4: There is a lot of counterfeit wine on the Mainland, and Moutai bottles licensed in Macau have anti-counterfeit labels.

Ko said that although there are a large number of imported goods in the market, Macau is still a reliable sales point for consumers, there are many more fake wines in mainland China.”

To allow consumers to identify the bottles, Moutai bottles sold in Macau are affixed with anti-counterfeiting labels to prove that they are not parallel imports of unknown origin or even fake .