Do the Scandinavian consumers pay a ‘fair’ price for premium German white wines?

The aim of this paper is to analyse the retail prices of premiumGerman white wines sold in the Scandinavian countries. Germanwhite wines account for approximately 5-6 per cent of the total saleof wines – both red and white wines - in Denmark, Norway andSweden. However, the market shares of German wines in Scandinaviahave been declining for a number of years. Diminishing marketshares may reflect changes in consumer taste or simply ‘wrong’prices, the latter related to both the level of wine prices (Germanwines being relatively expensive) and the structure of wine prices. Ingeneral, country-specific price differences for identical wines maybe caused by differences in taxes, different import prices, transportationcosts as well as other costs - and also different competitiveconditions at the retail level in the respective countries. Still, differencesin wine prices across countries do not always reflect the abovementioned factors. The aim of this paper is to analyse further therelationship between the prices of German white wines in the Scandinaviancountries and the prices in the country of production(Germany) by direct comparison (price level) and by using a hedonicprice function approach (price structure). Using a sample of 150German white wines being supplied on at least one of the nationalmarkets in Scandinavia the analyses suggest that the prices onGerman premium white wines on the Scandinavian markets are fair –both in terms of absolute average prices and in terms of relative prices.