South Korea & China: Korea’s beer imports from China plunge more than 40% in October

Korea's beer imports from China plunged more than 40 percent last month from a year earlier following the release of a viral video showing a man urinating into a tank at Tsingtao Brewery, the customs office said on November 16.

The amount of beer imports from China fell 43 percent on-year to 2,281 tons in October, and the value of beer purchases from the neighboring country declined 38 percent to $1.93 million, according to the Korea Customs Service.

The video released on Oct. 19 shows a uniformed man climbing over a high wall and urinating into a tank at Tsingtao Brewery.

Tsingtao said the batch of malt had been sealed off from use, and BK, which imports Tsingtao beer for distribution in Korea, said the plant in the video produces beer for local consumption in the Chinese market.

But the pee incident has raised concerns among consumers over the safety of Chinese food and beverage products.

In contrast, beer imports from Japan soared 302 percent on-year to 7,243 tons last month in terms of amount and surged 377 percent to $6.14 million in value, the customs data showed.

In October, Korea's overall beer imports rose 9.4 percent on-year to 18,753 tons and jumped 24 percent to $17.34 million.

The country's total beer exports increased 18 percent to 7,494 tons and climbed 48 percent to $5.74 million during the same period, resulting in a trade deficit of $11.61 million in the beer segment.

E-malt.com, the global information source for the brewing and malting industry professionals. The bi-weekly E-malt.com Newsletters feature latest industry news, statistics in graphs and tables, world barley and malt prices, and other relevant information. Click here to get full access to E-malt.com. If you are a Castle Malting client, you can get free access to E-malt.com website and publications. Contact us for more information at marketing@castlemalting.com .