E-Malt.com News article: South Korea: Beer and soju increasingly give up eye-level shelf space to ready-to-drink cocktails

At Korean convenience stores, the liquor aisle's most valuable real estate is changing hands, the Korea Herald reported on August 8.

Eye-level shelves once dominated by 500-milliliter beer cans and green soju bottles are increasingly filled with colorful ready-to-drink cocktails and bottles of lower-alcohol flavored soju, as Koreans drink less and seek lighter options.

"These days, more customers buy RTD (ready-to-drink) products and flavored soju with lower alcohol content," a convenience store owner in Seoul said.

"Sales of traditional green-bottle (plain) soju and 500-ml beer have weakened over the past few years, so I naturally had to reorganize the displays."

The changing shelves reflect a broader decline in Korean alcohol consumption. Liquor shipments totaled 3.15 million kiloliters in 2024, down 17.3 percent from a decade earlier, according to Statistics Korea.

Average monthly household spending on alcoholic beverages fell 9 percent on-year to 13,000 won ($9.20) in the first quarter, the steepest decline since quarterly tracking began in 2019.

The shift accelerated during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, as corporate after-work drinking declined and demographic changes combined with "healthy pleasure" and "sober curious" trends.

Korea's major liquor companies — HiteJinro, Lotte Chilsung Beverage and Oriental Brewery — are responding with lower-alcohol drinks, premixed cocktails and a stronger export push.

HiteJinro on August 3 launched Terra Sparkling, a season-limited white wine-based drink, in tomato, lemon and watermelon, saying it wanted to give choices to customers looking for new flavors and fun this summer.

As for Terra Zero, an alcohol-free beer-flavored beverage launched by HiteJinro in April, the company emphasized the product's zero calories and zero sweeteners. According to the company, over 4 million cans sold within 100 days of its launch.

HiteJinro, Korea's largest distiller, recently decided to lower the alcoholic content of its flagship soju brand Chamisul Fresh from 16 percent to 15.7 percent, saying it wanted to better align with changing customer preferences.

In July, HiteJinro named V of BTS as the new global ambassador of its soju brand Jinro, as it seeks to bolster global awareness and reach a broader customer base through the boy band's immense popularity.

Supplying products to some 80 countries, HiteJinro's overseas sales logged 192 billion won last year to account for 8.6 percent of total revenue, up 2.6 percentage points from 2021.

"Consumers no longer drink simply to get drunk," said a liquor industry official. "They drink for taste, mood and social experience. So as volume sales slow, the liquor industry's road map has shifted toward developing products that offer an attractive option for customers while ramping up efforts to boost exports."

According to Deep Market Insights, Korea's premixed alcoholic beverage market reached $542 million last year and is forecast to more than double to $1.12 billion by 2034, with a compound annual growth rate of about 8 percent.

Lotte Chilsung Beverage has been at the vanguard in the domestic market for premixed drinks. Since launching the first series of Soohari Jin, a fruity carbonated liquor, in May 2021, the company has expanded the lineup to four flavors, with demand for the brand soaring.

According to Lotte Chilsung Beverage, sales of Soonhari Jin reached approximately 17 billion won in the first half of this year, already surpassing last year's total of 16.2 billion won. The company forecasts it will sell more than 120 million 355-milliliter cans of Soonhari by the end of this year.

Lotte Chilsung Beverage ignited the zero-sugar boom among soju producers as it debuted Saero in September 2022. Accumulated sales of Saero bottles surpassed 800 million at the end of last year. The company has rolled out four trendy flavors: apricot, kiwi, lychee and omija.

Lotte Chilsung Beverage added it has been seeking ways to promote not only its Saero soju brand, but also the Soonhari soju brand in overseas markets. Launched in Korea in March 2015 as the first fruit-flavored soju on the shelves, Soonhari made a splash in the domestic market, leading competitors to develop and commercialize their own sweetened soju products.

According to Lotte Chilsung Beverage, it currently exports eight flavors of Soonhari soju — apple, peach, strawberry, yogurt, apple mango, grape, plum and lychee — and three flavors of Saero to some 30 countries. The company said US sales of the sweetened soju rose 30 percent per year between 2021 and 2025.

"Overseas customers, unlike Koreans who usually pair soju with various dishes, tend to enjoy alcoholic beverages by themselves or with finger foods," said an official at a liquor producer.

"That's why soju companies are coming up with different flavors and lower alcoholic content so they can target those who enjoy wine."

Korea's biggest beer producer Oriental Brewery, better known as OB, rolled out Cass Lemon Squeeze Zero, a renewal of its nonalcoholic beverage, in July as the company sought to upgrade the taste of the drink amid the spreading sober lifestyle among young customers.

As of 2025, OB exported 25 beer brands in about 20 countries, accounting for approximately 80 percent of Korea's total beer exports. The company is doubling down on expanding its presence in Mongolia, where its flagship Cass is a leader in the country's premium beer market.

Unwilling to settle for its domestic beer leadership, OB acquired Jeju Soju from Shinsegae Group's liquor unit Shinseage L&B in 2024 to enter the soju market and explore new business opportunities in the growing overseas soju sector.

OB rolled out its export-only soju brand Geonbae Zzan in sweetened flavors with a focus on the Southeast Asian region last year to test customer reactions.

"The rising popularity and attention of Korean entertainment culture, thanks to the global success of K-pop celebrities and Korean movies and dramas, has opened up opportunities for Korean liquor-makers to enter regional markets," said another liquor industry official.

"As Korea's alcohol consumption is expected to continue declining, liquor firms' reliance on overseas market will keep growing heavier."


11 August, 2026