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Bali needs 1m bottles of liquor in 2010
Bali Trade and Industry Agency chief I Gede Darmaja estimated Tuesday the island would need around one million bottles of alcoholic beverages in 2010 to fulfill the demands of its tourism industry
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ali Trade and Industry Agency chief I Gede Darmaja estimated Tuesday the island would need around one million bottles of alcoholic beverages in 2010 to fulfill the demands of its tourism industry.
“The island will need 1,065,050 bottles of alcoholic beverages, including imported beers,
champagne, sparkling wine, red and white wine and various spirits,” he said.
The estimate was based on liquor sales reported by the island’s starred hotels.
The report revealed that each room absorbed an average of 2.24 bottles of imported beer, 0.14
bottles of champagne, 0.07 bottles of sparkling wine, 0.72 bottles of red wine, 1.01 bottles of white
wine and one bottle of spirits per month.
Each month, the island’s starred hotels consume around 58,276 bottles of alcoholic beverages, while the non-starred hotels consume around 29,138 bottles.
“That doesn’t include the demand from numerous international events held in Bali that could
reach 16,100 bottles per year,” he said.
The island, Darmaja stressed, actually had a distribution quota that was sufficient to fulfill the demand for alcoholic beverages.
“The distribution quota allocated to the island is 1,080,000 bottles, which is higher than the estimated demand,” he said.
However, he admitted the rigid and tightly controlled distribution of alcoholic beverages had often
resulted in scarcity, which eventually gave birth to a thriving black market.
In mid-2009, the island’s tax and excise authority carried out a large-scale inspection of local
hotels and restaurants.
The officers found that out of a total 7,000 bottles of liquor inspected, a whooping 94 percent came from black market.
Following that operation, the authorities temporarily stopped liquor distribution in Bali, a decision that was lambasted by the tourism industry.
Darmaja pointed out the trade minister had just issued a regulation that could provide the local administration with a legal avenue to prevent the scarcity of liquor from occurring on the resort island.
