Alcoholic Beverage insights

The government is moving to promote rice consumption by revitalizing the traditional liquor industry. It plans to increase liquor tax reduction benefits to encourage new startups and ease regulations on raw material procurement to make product development easier. On the 12th, the government released a ‘traditional liquor industry revitalization plan’ containing these contents. First, the target liquor for ‘small-scale liquor manufacturing licenses’ will be expanded to include distilled soju and distilled liquors such as brandy and whiskey. Previously, only fermented liquors such as takju, yakju, cheongju, fruit liquor, and beer were allowed. This is expected to make it easier for producer groups and young farmers with insufficient capital to start breweries. The liquor tax reduction benefits will also be increased. Up until now, a 50% liquor tax reduction was applied to fermented liquors of 500 kl (kiloliters) or less and distilled liquors of 250 kl or less based on the previous year’s shipment volume. The government has decided to double this standard to 1,000 kl and 500 kl, respectively, and to create a new 30% reduction section. Regulations on the procurement of raw materials for regional specialty liquors will be relaxed. The current ‘Act on the Promotion of Traditional Liquor, etc. Industry’ stipulates that the three main ingredients for regional specialty liquors must be procured only from the region where the brewery is located or an adjacent region. In the future, this will be changed to only allow a certain percentage or more of local agricultural products to be used. The relevant laws are scheduled to be revised within the first half of the year. Reporter Ji Yuri yuriji@nongmin.com

[Korea Agricultural and Fishery Newspaper] Ryu In-su, Director of the Korea Liquor Industry Research Institute Traditional liquor is a heritage that contains Korea’s history and culture, an industry linked to local agriculture, and an important cultural product that can represent a national brand. However, despite the government’s various support and fostering policies over the past 10 years, the growth of the traditional liquor industry has not lived up to expectations. Since enacting the Act on the Promotion of the Traditional Liquor Industry in 2010, the government has carried out various projects such as Korean Liquor Competition, Traditional Liquor Festival, Visiting Breweries, and Traditional Liquor Gallery. However, the core of the policy has been focused on building infrastructure and expanding the base, and the traditional liquor industry has not been able to grow.

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