Agriculture & Food

On the evening of June 9th at 21:00, the owner of a Japanese sake shop in Chaoyang District, Beijing was organizing the Japanese sake in the wine cabinet. She told reporters that some customers will store the endless Japanese sake they have purchased in the store and continue drinking it the next time they come. The reporter noticed that there are five cabinets in the store for storing alcohol, which are filled with various imported Japanese alcoholic beverages.

The Japanese restaurant owner said, "In the past, people were not familiar with Japanese sake and few people tried it. Now, more and more people are accepting sake

Diversified liquor imports showing a growth trend

In recent years, the sales of Japanese sake in the Chinese market have been increasing year by year. China has become one of the main markets for Japanese sake international trade exports. According to data released by the Japan Sake Brewers Association (JSS), last year, the total export of Japanese sake to China reached 14.164 billion yen, a year-on-year increase of 37.39%; Sake exported to China accounts for nearly 30% of Japan's total Sake exports.

In the Chinese market, Japanese sake has a wide range of brands and varieties, including "Toyo Beauty", "Kubota", "Yuegui Guan", and the emerging "otter festival", "Tihu", and "Shuten-dōji". These brands of sake are not only highly respected in Japan, but also widely recognized and loved in the Chinese market.

"Influenced by more and more personalized consumption demand, consumers began to pursue distinctive drinking taste and consumption experience, which provided a driving force for the growth of some relatively small liquor categories." Yang Menghan, a well-known media person, said in an interview with reporters that the imported diversified liquor categories showed a growth trend when domestic Baijiu production capacity and total consumption declined relatively. Not only Japanese sake, but also whiskey, brandy, and liqueur from Europe and America are currently in a relatively niche position, accounting for a relatively small portion of the entire alcohol consumption market. However, import growth is fast and cannot be ignored.

In recent years, mixed drinks formed by low-grade trendy drinks in European and American markets, combined with fruit juice and low-grade Liquor, have become increasingly popular around the world. Japanese sake also caters to the trend of health due to its low alcohol content and palatability. At the same time, both western Liquor and Japanese sake, combined with the trend culture, are relatively novel in the design of bottle shape and logo, and can also bring consumers a different experience in the way of drinking, which undoubtedly conforms to the psychology of the young generation and drives consumption.

Shaoxing Yellow Rice Wine Fragrant Dongyang Izakaya Restaurant

As one of the representatives of Chinese liquor, yellow wine has a high popularity worldwide. In neighboring Japan, rice wine is sold in Chinese restaurants, Japanese style Izakaya restaurants and supermarkets. Nowadays, RCEP has been in effect for over a year, and yellow wine from China is also facing opportunities in the Japanese market.

The reporter learned that at a Chinese restaurant in Ueno ku, Tokyo, Japan, customers only need to pay 1000 yen to refill Shaoxing yellow wine infinitely within an hour. The store manager stated that on average, about 40% of customers order yellow wine every day.

At present, there are about a dozen trading companies in Japan engaged in importing yellow wine. According to an importer, currently, most of the yellow wine circulating in the Japanese market is Shaoxing yellow wine, with only a small portion produced in places such as Shandong or Shanghai. Therefore, Japanese consumers are used to calling rice wine "Shaoxing wine". The head of a Japanese rice wine import enterprise stated that the company transports approximately two to three containers from China to Japan every month, with approximately thirty to forty thousand bottles. If the yen exchange rate remains unchanged, the positive effects brought by RCEP will be even higher, "the person in charge said.

According to data from the Ministry of Finance of Japan, the import value of Japanese yellow wine in 2022 was approximately 1.56 billion yen (approximately 81 million yuan), an increase of about 6% compared to 2019.

Yang Menghan stated that yellow wine belongs to traditional Chinese liquor varieties, but it is a relatively niche category in the Chinese market, mainly popular in the Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai regions. Due to the influence of consumption and drinking habits, the influence is limited. In 2022, China's rice wine industry will achieve sales revenue of 10.16 billion yuan, which is only one sixtieth of the Baijiu industry, and the profit of the entire rice wine industry will be only 1.27 billion yuan.

In history, Japan has been deeply influenced by Chinese culture, and its dietary habits are similar to those of China. This is the cultural foundation for exporting yellow wine and green plum wine to Japan. However, due to the relatively small industrial scale and the cultural influence that needs to be improved, Shaoxing yellow wine still has great room for improvement in the international trade export market.

Yang Menghan pointed out that in order to open up the Japanese and even international markets and expand the development space of the international trade market, in addition to industrial scale, Chinese yellow wine also faces standardization issues. Connecting to international standards is a prerequisite for entering the international trade market. Japan, Europe and America have high standards for food products, including pesticide residue standards for brewing materials and brewing standards. In addition, influenced by trendy culture, China's yellow wine trendy culture still needs to enhance its international trade influence.

RCEP Agreement Helps Sino Japanese Liquor Exchange

The implementation of RCEP has become one of the boosters for Japanese commodity exports, especially with a significant export enhancement effect on the Chinese market. Through RCEP, China and Japan have formed a tariff reduction arrangement for the first time. Before the RCEP came into effect, China imposed a 40% tariff on Japanese sake. According to the concession arrangement, after the agreement comes into effect, tariffs will be lowered in stages, and the tax rate will gradually decrease until it is completely abolished in the 21st year; The tariff on liquor will also be completely reduced to zero in the 21st year, based on the previous 10%. At that time, a large part of the funds will be released, which is a great policy benefit for importers and distributors of Japanese liquor trade. At the same time, after the RCEP takes effect, the tariff on exporting yellow wine to Japan will also decrease year by year. It is expected that by 2042, all tariffs on yellow wine will be reduced. (Translated from: China Trade News)