Where Wine in Thailand Comes From: One Catalogue, Counted

Key facts

Top two countries

France and Italy, about 58%

Thai wine in the catalogue

under 1%

Customs duty on wine (Feb 2024)

Cut to 0% for all origins, as a temporary measure

The shape of this catalogue

Counted by in-stock wines with a stated country, France comes first at about 32%, with Italy at about 26%. Between them they make up more than half of the catalogue.

Australia follows at about 11%, and after that the shares fall away quickly. Most remaining countries sit in single digits, and 15 hold less than 2% each.

Every figure on this page is recomputed whenever the catalogue data changes, so the chart below always reflects the latest count.

National import figures tell a different story

A catalogue counts listings. Import statistics count money and volume. The two answer different questions, and it is worth seeing both.

A 2024 report by the US Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service puts Thailand’s 2023 wine imports by value at about 28% from France, 28% from Australia, 11% from Italy, 9% from the United States and 8% from Chile.

By volume the picture shifts again. Australian wine came to about 9.2 million bottles, nearly twice France’s 4.9 million. The same report notes that imported grape wine made up about 98% of Thailand’s grape wine market.

Australia makes up about 11% of this catalogue against about 28% of national import value, and Italy about 26% against about 11%. A catalogue weights range; import data weights volume and value.

Customs duty on wine has not always been the same for every country

Until February 2024, wine from countries without a free trade agreement with Thailand paid 54% customs duty, or 60% above 23% alcohol. Wine from FTA partners such as Australia and Chile faced a lower tax burden.

The Thailand–Australia Free Trade Agreement is the clearest case. When it took effect in 2005, Thailand cut its 54% wine tariff to 40% at once and scheduled it to reach zero in 2015.

On 23 February 2024 the Ministry of Finance cut the customs duty on wine to 0% for every origin, announced as a temporary measure, while excise tax still applies in a restructured form. Check the Thai Customs Department for the current rate. Either way, duty differences by origin cannot fully explain why European wine still leads in this catalogue.

Why Europe still carries so much weight

Part of the answer is production. According to the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV), Italy, France and Spain together made about half of the world’s wine in 2024.

Countries that make that much wine make it in many regions and many styles, so a catalogue that aims for range ends up with many listings from them.

Labelling adds to it. Much European wine carries a protected designation of origin (PDO), a place name set in EU law, and one place name splits into many listings across producers and vintages. The listing count grows faster than the volume behind it.

Where Thai wine fits

Wine from Thailand is in the catalogue, at under 1% of wines with a stated country. That matches the USDA finding that imported grape wine makes up almost all of Thailand’s grape wine market.

Thai vineyards such as those around Khao Yai sit outside the classic wine belt and plan their year so the grapes ripen in the dry season.

How this was counted

The figures come from one catalogue, counted when the page is built, and only include wines recorded as in stock. Out-of-stock listings are left out, because counting them would describe what was once available rather than what is.

Wines with no stated country (fewer than 1%) are excluded, not shared out among the countries that do state one. Every percentage is of wines with a stated origin.

This is not national import data. For the market as a whole, use the value and volume figures quoted above.

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