Soju Exports Increasing

HiteJinro announced on March 27 that its soju exports hit an all-time high of US$120 million last year with a year-on-year increase of 16.4 percent.

The company initiated its soju globalization in 2016 and its soju exports have increased since then. For the last five years, the exports showed an average annual increase of 17.1 percent. Last year, those to the Americas jumped 82.4 percent and those to Europe and Africa increased 39.4 percent.

Meanwhile, in South Korea, hard liquor consumption is on the increase. For instance, emart’s hard liquor sales reached 103.6 percent of its soju sales in the first two months of this year. The figure was 81.3 percent in 2021 and 95.8 percent in 2022.