Japan: "Third-category" beer shipments in May increased four times from the last year level
During May 2005 in Japan overall shipments of beer and beer-like alcoholic beverages by five major domestic breweries increased slightly by 0.3 % year-on-year to 38.82 million cases (491.46 million litres), Kyodo News posted on June 10. One case holds 12.66 liters. May 2005 was the second straight month of increase of overall shipments, with the solid popularity of "third-category" beer offsetting the slumped sales of other products.
Shipments of the "third-category" beer jumped almost four times from the last year level to 6.25 million cases (79.13 million litres). However, the market share of this beer-like beverage slightly fell to 16.1 % from the previous month's 19.4 %.
Meanwhile, beer shipments declined 6.0 % in May 2005 to 21.50 million cases (272.19 million litres) and those of "happoshu" low-malt beer dropped 22.6 % to 11.07 million cases (140.15 million litres).
Third-category beer, known for its cheap price due to lower liquor taxes, has become popular among consumers, and market competition has intensified since Kirin and Asahi entered the market in April following Sapporo and Suntory. A Kirin official attributed the growing popularity of third-category beer partly to last year's debate over possible tax hikes and higher prices of some of other conventional beer.
"Debate late last year on whether to raise a tax (on third-category beer) turned out to have helped boost its publicity," the official said. "And prices of some beer have risen as a result of each brewer abolishing sales promotion kickbacks."
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