1. INTRODUCTION OF IMPORTER
1) Profile of the Business Sector - Alcoholic Beverages Industry
The Control and Sale of Alcoholic Beverages in Canada
Under the Constitution of Canada, responsibility for enacting laws and regulations regarding the sale and distribution of alcoholic beverages is the sole responsibility of the ten provinces. There are separate agencies in each province responsible for regulating the sale and consumption and selling alcoholic beverages. Alberta is currently the only jurisdiction to have completely privatized its retail liquor industry Most of the other jurisdictions have maintained a total or near-total control over the sale of hard liquor while allowing limited privatization of beer and wine sales. Although beer remains by far the most popular alcoholic beverage in Canada, growth of wine sales continued to outpace growth in sales of beer and spirits . In addition, the domestic products are still highly captured the consumer market, the demand for more variety of foreign products is increasing gradually.
<Proportions of the sales of domestic and imported alcoholic beverages by volume>
- Source: Statistics Canada, Fiscal year on Mar. 2006
Alcohol consumption in Quebec
Quebec is the fifth largest alcohol consumption province in Canada . The 93.9% of the alcohol sales were beers and the remainder is shared among various products: 17.4% were wines, 4.1% were spirits including champagne, tequila, vodka, whisky and so on. The legal drinking age is 18 in Quebec . The distribution and sales of alcoholic beverages are monopolized by Société des alcools du Québec (SAQ).
2) Profile of the Company - Société des alcools d ...