South Korea & China: Korean beer exports to China more than double in 2017

South Korea’s beer export to China more than doubled last year compared to a year ago amid unfazed popularity of Korean pop culture, while harder liquor varieties lost favor with Chinese drinkers, the Pulse News reported on August 22.

According to state-run Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corp. on August 22, Korea shipped out 65 million litres of beer to China in 2017, more than doubled from 31.6 million litres in the previous year. Beer export value also doubled to $50.2 million from $23.99 million as average sale price rose $0.77 per litre from $0.76 over the cited period.

Korean beers accounted for 9.1 percent share of China’s overall import beer market in 2017, sharply up from 4.9 percent in the previous year based on volume. In dollar terms, Korean beer products’ share stood at 6.7 percent last year, compared with 3.6 percent in the previous year.

The best-selling Korean beer in China was ‘Blue Girl,’ sold by Korea’s leading brewer Oriental Brewery Co. (OB) as an original design manufacturer. Blue Girl, which penetrated into Chinese beer market through Hong Kong, accounted for 87.9 percent of Korean beer sales in China last year, up from 72 percent in the previous year. Next in line were OB’s Cass with 10 percent and Hite Jinro Co.’s Hite with 1.1 percent.

Korea’s other alcoholic beverages, however, lost their appeals to Chinese drinkers. Distilled rice liquor or soju export to China shrank to $7.34 million in 2017 from $9.39 million in 2016 and that of makgeolli, Korea’s traditional sweet fermented rice wine also shrivelled to $1.55 million from $2.09 million. Cheongju, refined rice wine shipment to China fell to $300,000 from $440,000 and fruit wine sharply down to $240,000 from $670,000 over the cited period.

Korean soju’s share in China’s imported soju market also fell to 46.3 percent in 2017 from 56.4 percent in the preceding year, based on volume. Makgeolii’s share also declined to 19.7 percent from 25.7 percent.

The state agency attributed Korean beer’s popularity in China to Korean dramas that often show scenes of people enjoying ‘chimaek’ - mix of deep fried chicken and maekju (beer), Koreans’ favorite nighttime delivery menu. It said nearly 80 percent of Korean beers are consumed by Chinese while Korean soju and makgeolii are mostly sold to Koreans and ethnic Koreans living in China.

23 August, 2018