Norway’s state liquor monopoly, Vinmonopolet, had worried that its sales would suffer after the government added two more bottles of wine to travelers’ duty-free import quota for those who don’t buy tobacco. Instead, Vinmonopolet reported that sales were up in July despite the higher duty-free quota.
Revenues were up 2.6 percent compared to July last year, with sales of wine leading the statistics. Halvor Bing Lorentzen, communications director at Vinmonopolet, attributed the increase to “good weather and record high temperatures in July.”
Officials at the state monopoly, where highly taxed wine and liquor is meant to discourage consumption of alcoholic beverages, aren’t giving up their fight against the new duty-free quota, however. “With such fine weather and warmth in July, we could have expected even higher sales figures,” Lorentzen claimed. He insisted that Vinmonopolet still thinks it’s losing market share and views the duty-free operations at Norwegian airports, for example, as a serious threat to its politically intended market domination.
newsinenglish.no staff
