• claimsou@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    What the hell are we buying in EU? It would never cross my mind to by American alcohol.

    • k0e3@lemmy.ca
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      1 day ago

      I was surprised to see that too. I thought maybe it was just correlated to population but I guess you guys just like US alcohol.

    • ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      I know Trumpists, who tried their best to “offset the losses caused by communist boycotts”.

      Boycotts are often called “communist” in the former Soviet bloc by right wingers, who had to change the tone of their critique of communism. Out with the arrest quotas, out with the secret police, out with the forced labor camps, welcome to crying middle aged women complaining how they couldn’t buy Adidas shoes under communism as a child. This started so seep into “the west” thanks to the popularity of the Orbán regime with post-fascists. The reality was much more complicated, while sometimes western products were “banned” (they couldn’t be imported, but the ownership of theirs were loosely enforced if that was also banned), other times the west also refused to sell their products there. Also sometimes it was easy to skirt around such bans, in diplomat shops, all you needed is some foreign currency ,which was provided by the likes of the Hungarian corporation Novotrade, as they needed to exchange the dollars they got from the west to forint to pay their gamedevs.

    • khannie@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      I discovered that Smirnoff sold in the EU is American. I’m sure there are others.

      I can confidently say I can’t remember the last time I bought American alcohol but also that number is actually very low. Way less than one dollar per person per quarter.

      • uhmbah@lemmy.ca
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        1 day ago

        A British company that manufactures in various countries.

        My Canadian liquor store told me it was Canadian.

        This is a reminder to me to fact check.

        Smirnoff is currently manufactured in the following countries:

        • Argentina
        • Australia
        • Brazil
        • Canada
        • Great Britain
        • Italy
        • Jamaica
        • Kenya
        • India
        • Indonesia
        • United States
        • El Salvador
        • ZDL@lazysoci.al
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          1 day ago

          The question isn’t where it is manufactured. It’s where the money flows on sale.

          For example “Canadian” French’s ketchup is made with tomatoes sourced in Canada. But the money flows to McCormick’s, an American company.

          • uhmbah@lemmy.ca
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            23 hours ago

            Yep, that’s why we switched to Kozlik’s mustard and I now make my own ketchup. Etc or et el or whatever

            And as for a vodka, I’ll switch to a local distillery. I don’t drink enough to worry about the slightly higher price. Should have done that in the first place.

            • ZDL@lazysoci.al
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              14 hours ago

              Or at the very least a distillery that isn’t owned by Americans, yes.

            • ZDL@lazysoci.al
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              14 hours ago

              I’ve heard of apps like Buy Canadian or Buy Beaver but can’t vouch for any since where I live this is largely irrelevant. What I specifically can’t vouch for is whether they track ownership (i.e. where the money flows) or only material sourcing (i.e. where the labour gets exploited).

    • differentialdiagnosis@piefed.world
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      19 hours ago

      The US is a massive producer of wines and exported over 200 million liters in 2024.

      According to data analysis, the three countries most dependent on the US market for their wine exports—based on the percentage of total export value directed to the US in comparison to their overall wine export value in 2024—are Italy with 24.5%, France with 20.7% and Greece with 19.4%.>

      Then you have beer, bourbon, Smirnoff (as mentioned by other comments)

      >The EU remains the dominant market for U.S. spirits, accounting for approximately 50% of all exports at $1.2 billion. The top five export markets in 2024 were: the European Union ($1.2 billion), Canada ($221 million), the United Kingdom ($137 million), Australia ($131 million), and Mexico ($126 million).>

      I wish they produced worse wines because that’s my personal trap.

      • The second quote was referring to imports not exports. Sorry for that.

      Can’t fish out the text but here is a shoddy picture to show the importsPicture of EU imports of Wine from the US in percentage of total value from 2018 to 2024

      • jaybone@lemmy.zip
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        1 day ago

        I’m a bit surprised Italy and France are such big importers of wine. One would think they produce so much wine, they would consume their own.

        I will say California wines are amazing. IMO usually better than French or Italian wines. But maybe I am biased being Californian and having so much exposure to great local wines.

        Maybe we can secede the union and the world can enjoy our wines again 😢

        • ChicoSuave@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          I will say California wines are amazing. IMO usually better than French or Italian wines.

          I’m a bit surprised Italy and France are such big importers of wine. One would think they produce so much wine, they would consume their own.

          It’s export wine selling on the prestige of the country. They want California wine as much as everyone else.

          • jaybone@lemmy.zip
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            12 hours ago

            What east coast wines do you recommend? I’ve had Florida wines before, and they are not so great. Some from Georgia are ok.