Soju Consumption Rises with Economic Slowdown and National Tragedy

Isn’t soju, the Korean rice spirit, influenced by business cycle factors?

The sales of soju, the most popular distilled liquor among Korean people, continued to rise despite the economic recession.

Domestic sales of soju over the first four months this year rose 7.64 percent to 33.88 million boxes from the 31.48 million boxes in the same period last year, the distiller industry reported. One box contains 30-360mL bottles.

The sales of Jinro Soju, the market leader, was 18.79 million boxes from January to April this year, a 9.9 percent increase from the 17.08 million boxes sold during the same period last year.

As a result, Jinro’s domestic market share increased from 54.6 percent at 2003 year-end to 55.5 percent as of April this year. Jinro’s market share in the Seoul metropolitan area also rose to 93.3 percent from 92.4 percent. These figures are both record highs.

The sales increase was contributed by the fact that salaried men, major consumers of soju, tended to spend more time in restaurants having both dinner and soju after work rather than enjoying after-work drinking binge, according to the distiller industry. This is a quite a contrast to the sales drop of whiskey by 20 percent compared to last year due to the economic slump.

The sales increase was also partly due to the rise in orders by wholesalers and restaurants with the rumor that soju price would increase in late April or early May.

Jin-Hup Song jinhup@donga.com