04. 03. 2024, 7:17

To clarify something, following some feedbacks: i am in no way opposed to a better recycling scheme. As I mentioned, the proposal is perfectly honorable, and a better handling of used bottles would be a nice initiative. However, I fail to understand why exempting some industries from that proposal and not others. Either it applies to all, forcing everyone to do better, or to none. What makes wine and spirits more special than sake here?

After discussing with some Japanese exporters and sake breweries, some are already working towards alternative solutions, like non-glass bottles, or shipping sake to Europe in tanks to then fill regular wine bottles here. If the sake industry will have to adapt in order to survive and develop, as is, such a proposal made by the EU would still decrease the already limited selection of Japanese sake available in Europe, no doubt about this, at a time when more and more breweries depend more and more on exports to be able to keep brewing, even if the european market is still relatively small compare to the US or Asia.