While empty bottles of famous spirits are being sold at good prices in Vietnam as collectibles, some have been used for producing fake products.
Empty bottles of famous spirits are being sold at good prices
Yen, a bottle seller, said the market for empty bottles started around 15 years ago. The majority of customers are young men who like to collect bottles from famous brands.
The bottles of Chivas are especially popular. An empty bottle of 18 years-old Chivas sold at VND50,000 (USD2.27), while a 21 year-old bottle is worth VND120,000. Bottles of Louis XIII, Macallan 1946 or Dewar's are rarer but can be sold at VND5m (USD222) to VND10m (USD444) per bottle. A Martell L’Or bottle can be sold for VND20m.
Hung, a bottle seller in HCM City said some collectors wanted to buy one to two bottles for each kind of brand Hung had to decorate their houses.
However, parts of these bottles have been sold to fake liquor manufacturers.
On January 28, police in Pleiku City busted a large fake alcohol manufacturing facility. The police discovered over 600 empty bottles, 240 faked brand stickers and 1,000 stamps for imported goods.
They also seized 108 bottles of fake Chivas, dozens of boxes of vodka and various kinds of spirits. Nguyen Thai Hao, the facility's owner, said they mixed pigments with several kinds of liquor, including Hankey Bannister and vodka, before pouring it into a Chivas bottle which they bought from scrap collectors.
On September 3, Hanoi police arrested Quach Ngan Giang for producing and trading fake alcohol. According to Giang, they bought Black, a Laotian liquor sold at VND300,000 for 12 bottles, to produce dozens of Chivas bottles. In three months, they created 60 bottles of 12 year-old Chivas and 80 bottles of Chivas 18 and five bottles of Chivas 21.
