South Korea: Korean brewers compete for more market share in absence of Japanese beer

South Korean beer producers are scrambling to fill the vacuum created in the local beer market after Japanese beer suffered a massive loss in market share due to a recent boycott movement against all things Japanese, The Korea Bizwire reported on January 9.

CU, a major South Korean convenience store chain, announced on January 8 that sales of Japanese beers dropped by more than 90 percent since July of last year due to faltering Korea-Japan relations.

In response, South Korean beer producers began to expand their share of the market, going from 1 to 5 percent growth early last year to more than 30 percent by the year’s end.

Microbreweries, in particular, achieved exponential growth based on differentiated brand strategy, growing by 159.6 percent in July, and 306.8 percent last December.

Microbrewery sales, in turn, expanded to comprise 5.6 percent of all South Korean beer sales in 2019, up from 1.9 percent in the previous year.

CU speculates that microbrewery products, which have been suffering from high production costs after the introduction of new legislation on liquor taxation, will now become available at more affordable prices, which will further boost their popularity.

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