TOKYO, Oct 21(Reuters )-The weak yen forced Suzy Iwamoto to raise rates on imported red wines at her bar and bottleshop in Tokyo by about 10%last month, and she fears more hikes might be inescapable after the yen plumbed levels today that were last seen 32 years earlier.
On Friday, a day after the yen moved previous 150 per dollar, the government reported that core customer inflation struck an eight-year high of 3.0% in September. learn more
Prices on some 20,000 food and beverage products in Japan have actually gone up this year, according to researcher Teikoku Databank, especially rates for imported items. Register now totally free unrestricted access to Reuters.com Register
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It’s not just the dollar. We also provide a lot of European wines, so general I actually need to think about the pricing in store, “stated Iwamoto, the owner of the Wine & Weekend shop in the Nihonbashi area of main Tokyo.”Sadly I have to pass a few of the concern on to my customers, which as a shop owner is truly uncomfortable. “
Japan imports about 70%of the red wine consumed in the country, most of
Red wine producers in the U.S. are raising base prices, but then the yen’s decline has actually led to a double whammy for consumers in Japan, said Andrew Dunbar, the president of Iconic White wine Japan, which manages imports of about 30 brand names.
The business raised prices by 10 % across the board in September and will likely need to warn distributors of another hike within a few months, Dunbar added. In specific, Japan is the most significant market for France’s Beaujolais Nouveau, with this year’s very first shipments of the fruity wine arriving this week. read more Major beverages business Kirin Holdings Co (2503. T) and Suntory Holdings raised prices on their Beaujolais bottles by 40 % or more this year, and decreased the range of offerings. “The cost of importing white wines in Japan has never been as high as today, “stated Eric Jean-Pierre Simon Dahler, the owner of White wine Prosperite, which deals mainly in imports from France. “Restaurants in Tokyo are not ordering red wines, and personal customers are extremely careful about investing cash.” Even before the yen’s precipitous decrease from August, consumer prices were rising in Japan after years of deflation, due to logistics logjams from the COVID-19 crisis and skyrocketing energy expenses triggered by the war in Ukraine. “It’s not just wine, in basic everything’s going up, especially my preferred imported products,” said Maiko Kissaka, a 49-year-old supervisor at a foreign investment firm. “It’s tough however I keep purchasing them. I’ll cut back on other things, I do not wish to cut back on booze.” Register now totally free unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Reporting by Tom Bateman and Rocky Swift; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore
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