According to the convenience store industry on the 29th, since the ‘urine beer’ controversy broke out on the 21st, Tsingtao beer sales at convenience stores have shrunk by 20-40% compared to the previous week.
At one convenience store, sales of Tsingtao beer fell by 41.3% from the 21st to the 26th compared to the previous week. The beer also dropped from 3rd to 7th place among imported beers during the same period. Another convenience store also saw a 30.6% decrease in Tsingtao beer sales.On the 19th of this month, a video was released on Weibo, a Chinese social network service (SNS), showing a man in work clothes seemingly urinating in a barley storage area at the Tsingtao 3 factory in Pingdu City, Shandong Province. The video quickly went viral, and local media including the Hongseong Newspaper reported on it. The hashtag related to the video trended on Weibo’s real-time search on the 20th.
Tsingtao beer had expanded its presence in the Korean market by serving as an alternative to Japanese beer during the ‘No Japan’ boycott movement that started in 2019. In the first half of this year, it even ranked first among imported beer brands, with retail sales of 589 billion won ($494 million). Even after the ‘No Japan’ movement lost steam, Tsingtao remained in the top ranks of convenience store beer sales, but since the urine controversy, consumer anxiety has caused it to drop out of the top five.
As Tsingtao takes a hit, sales of Japanese Asahi and American Budweiser beers have noticeably increased, reaping the benefits. Major convenience stores have reported increased sales or higher sales rankings for these brands.
This year (as of September), Chinese beers, including Tsingtao, ranked third in beer imports, following Japan and the Netherlands. Until September, $27.74 million worth of beer was imported, but it seems inevitable that it will take a hit for the time being.
Meanwhile, in response to the spread of the video and controversy, BeerK, the importer and distributor of Tsingtao in Korea, drew a line, stating that the factory in the video only produces domestic products. BeerK emphasized, “Tsingtao beer is manufactured in separate factories for domestic and export products. The 3rd factory (shown in the SNS video) only produces domestic beer.” They added, “All Tsingtao products currently imported by BeerK are not related to the factory in question.”Meanwhile, in response to the spread of the video and controversy, BeerK, the importer and distributor of Tsingtao in Korea, drew a line, stating that the factory in the video only produces domestic products. BeerK emphasized, “Tsingtao beer is manufactured in separate factories for domestic and export products. The 3rd factory (shown in the SNS video) only produces domestic beer.” They added, “All Tsingtao products currently imported by BeerK are not related to the factory in question.”
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety also confirmed that no beer manufactured at the 3rd factory has been imported into Korea. The Ministry explained, “The factory in question is not registered as an overseas manufacturing plant. The Tsingtao beer imported into Korea is produced at three places: the 1st factory (located in Sibei District, China), the 2nd factory (located in Lichang District), and the 5th factory (located in Laoshan District).”
However, as the year-end season with many gatherings approaches, industry insiders predict that sales will inevitably take a hit.
In fact, consumers who have seen the video or heard the news online are unable to hide their confusion. One netizen who posted on a local moms’ cafe said, “It was a beer I occasionally bought, but this is shocking.” Another netizen reacted, “Even though they say the export factory is not the one in the video, it’s still unsettling.”
Some in the industry worry that this could worsen perceptions of all imported products, given the series of hygiene controversies related to Chinese food products. It is pointed out that consumer distrust has reignited as hygiene controversies over Chinese food products such as ‘naked kimchi’ (2021) and ‘E. coli kimchi’ (2013) resurface just when they seem to have been forgotten. Most recently, in 2021, a video of a male employee at a Chinese kimchi factory stripping naked and pickling cabbages in a vat, dubbed ‘naked kimchi,’ went viral online.
