Kirin Brewery Co Ltd will introduce two new beers in Japan this March -- the "Blue Label" beer and the low-malt "Namakuro" -- which are expected to boost sales by 2.0 million and 2.4 million cases respectively, Reuters reported.

“The company has to stop competing on price, and referred to a damaging domestic price war last June that cut the price of low-malt beer by 10 yen a can,” Hideo Chida, Kirin managing director said. "We realize there is a strong interest in low prices. But we have to produce value added products that will convince consumers to pay more."

Kirin is also expected to pass on the expected tax hike for low-malt beer through to consumers, and sales are seen falling some 80,000 kilolitres as a result. The Japanese brewery will introduce a new middle-range beer "Qingchun" in Shanghai this month and aims to boost 2003 sales of its premium "Ichiban Shibori" by some 500,000 cases to 800,000, the company said. (Reuters)

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