As beer season arrives, Beijing consumers are finding it easy to notice that the variety and number of imported beer brands in hypermarkets is dazzling. Besides German beer, beers from the UK, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Denmark are also common. In the past, imported beer was always associated with "high-end," but this year, it has become common to see imported beer piled in prominent positions in Beijing supermarkets with 50% or even 70% discounts. You can buy a 500ml can of imported beer for just 4-5 yuan. This tempts consumers, but also poses a challenge: which one tastes good? Which one is famous?

In the information age, finding answers is not difficult. Just take out your phone, open "Taobao" and search, but the results are startling. "Original imported," "hundred-year history," along with historically evocative images, every beer has a story. The most startling is the price: on e-commerce platforms, many varieties sell for only 79 yuan per case, with 24 cans per case.

Why so cheap? Is foreign beer really this cheap, and now they are selling at low prices for high volume?

Imported Beer vs. Domestic Beer

A few years ago, imported beer was mainly sold in bars and premium supermarkets, but now it has become an important category in hypermarkets, occupying similar shelf space and promotional positions as domestic beer. The reporter recently experienced this firsthand at Beijing Wumart Xisanqi store and Chaoshifa Baoshengli store.

Perhaps to make it easier for customers to choose, the beer sales areas in these two stores have domestic and imported beer shelves facing each other. On the domestic side, products from Tsingtao, Yanjing, Harbin, Snow, and AB InBev are clearly arranged by brand. On the imported side, the packaging colors range from red, orange, yellow, green, black, to gold, with no fewer than twenty brands, and the price tags indicate beer types such as white, yellow, black, and red.

Wumart not only has entire shelves of imported beer in the beer sales area but also gives beer a large space in the dedicated imported goods section. At Chaoshifa, among the promotional stacks at the checkout where foot traffic is highest, the reporter counted eight types of imported beer.

The Beijing market has always been strictly regulated, and many products from other regions are cautious about entering Beijing. Wumart and Chaoshifa are leading local supermarkets in Beijing. If imported beer has already gained such an important position here, it is not hard to imagine the momentum imported beer has built in other first- and second-tier cities and coastal areas.

Unfamiliar Brands and Affordable Prices

Imported beer has always given an upscale impression, with prices typically around 10 yuan per 500ml can. Now, cans priced at 6-7 yuan account for a third, and with 50% or 30% discounts, prices are even lower.

The reporter saw at Wumart that two German beers were being promoted in stacks, both priced at 4.4 yuan. At Chaoshifa, in the past week, one-fifth of imported beers were priced below 4 yuan, four types were promoted at 8.9 yuan for two cans, and one was priced as low as 2.8 yuan. Such prices are in the mid-range, and their "original imported" status is quite appealing to customers.

At Wumart, an elderly man put four cans of imported beer on promotion into his shopping cart. "Does this beer taste good?" the reporter quickly asked. "I've never tried it, but it's quite cheap, and it's German," the man told the reporter. He said that supermarkets often have imported beer promotions, and he buys whichever is on sale, trying different kinds, but he can't remember the brands he's drunk.

With so many imported beer brands and new names in supermarkets, many consumers feel unfamiliar. The reporter asked several customers, "Which brand is famous?" and no one could answer.

If we go back about ten years, Corona became popular in bars, and the only beers in supermarkets were Carlsberg, Budweiser, and Heineken. Four or five years ago, Franziskaner was quite famous, and many people remembered the white-bearded old man on the can. Now the brands are dazzling. The reporter summarized: there are many with "-burg" in the name, such as Feldschlösschen, Eichbaum, Kronenbourg, Mecklenburg, Flensburger, Waldhaus, and Löwenbräu; some brands are similar, like Ritter, Franziskaner, Mönch, and Kloster; others are named after celebrities or myths, such as Caesar, Goethe, Roosevelt, Greene King, Countess, Celtics, and Hunter God; and names like Valentin, Erdinger, Kommando, and Rübel might have a very German flavor. Corona has been relegated to a corner, while Carlsberg and Budweiser are now classified as domestic beers.

Buying Imported Beer Is All About "Appearance"

The prices of imported beer are tempting, but with so many unfamiliar brands, choosing which one to buy becomes a challenge.

Domestic beer has a relatively single flavor, which is an important reason why many people choose imported beer. But which one tastes good, and which suits your palate? Since consumers know little about beer varieties, even if the name indicates something, they still can't figure it out. For example, Landberg Pilsner, Brooklyn Lager, and Duvel Golden Ale: "Pilsner," "Lager," and "Ale" refer to brewing processes, but many people mistake them for transliterations of a long string of foreign words.

The reporter found that domestic consumers' understanding of beer is polarized. For industry insiders, terms like the above are common knowledge that needs no explanation. On some beer forums, topics have risen to the level of discussing craft beer. A well-known beer rating app organizes tasting events at a pub in a city in a European country.

But more consumers buy beer on impulse from supermarkets or convenience stores, without researching brewing processes or flavors. The common people's concept of flavor is "crisp," "mellow," "fresh," and "crisp and mellow," which doesn't apply to imported beer at all. At most, they look at the alcohol content and malt concentration, distinguish between white, yellow, and black, and otherwise rely entirely on "appearance," choosing whichever looks appealing.

He Yong, Deputy Secretary-General of the China Alcoholic Drinks Association and Secretary-General of the Beer Branch, recently said in public that domestic consumers still have a visual consumption attitude toward imported beer, driven by curiosity and unable to remember brands, which is inconsistent with the original attributes of alcohol—addiction and preference.

The Imported Beer Market Needs to Evolve

Data shows that China's imported beer market experienced explosive growth starting in 2012, with rapid growth for four consecutive years. In 2015, it was almost crazy, with a year-on-year increase of nearly 50%, but in 2016, the growth rate clearly declined. Official data for 2016 shows that the total volume of imported beer in China was 646,400 kiloliters, a year-on-year increase of 20%.

The current scene in Beijing supermarkets reflects the state of the upstream channels. Why is it cheap? Why are there so many brands? Because many trading companies have found that consumers' pursuit of "new, novel, and special" beer is growing stronger, and consumption upgrading has turned attention to imported beer. As a result, a large number of trading companies have flooded in, with various purchasing channels, leading to a surge in imports.

Since the end of last year, reports of inventory backlogs of imported beer have frequently appeared in the media. Wholesale prices have been repeatedly reduced, and many traders have had to sell off beer nearing its expiration date at a loss.

The reporter noticed that many imported beers have quite early production dates, as early as July or August 2016, which is about ten months ago. In addition, the shelf life of imported canned beer is generally 15 months, while bottled beer is one year.

There are quite a few consumers who don't care whether the beer is "fresh," and the low prices play a role. On Wumart's online platform "Duodian," during the same sales period, imported beers priced around 10 yuan sold about a thousand cans each, while those priced around 5 yuan sold nearly 4,000 cans.

It seems that from visual consumption to developing a taste impact, Chinese people need to increase their beer knowledge and taste recognition ability. For both consumers and traders, the imported beer market is facing a revolutionary process.

CCTV Exposes 14 Beers Containing Carcinogens!

Recently, CCTV exposed 14 imported beers found to contain carcinogens, including Franziskaner.

Among the 14 German beers exposed, glyphosate pesticide residues were detected. According to German standards, the residues exceeded the limit by nearly 300 times.

What Exactly Is Glyphosate?

Glyphosate is the most widely used and highest-yield pesticide in the world, and its annual sales value has always ranked first among pesticides.

What Are the Hazards of Glyphosate? It May Cause Cancer

The World Health Organization (WHO) released a research report in early 2015, concluding that Monsanto's glyphosate pesticide, trade name "Roundup," is possibly carcinogenic to humans.

Since 2001, the agency has investigated situations in the United States, Canada, and Sweden, and there is sufficient evidence to show that glyphosate pesticides may cause lymphoma and lung cancer.

Even at very low levels, it may have negative effects on human health.

If the intake of glyphosate exceeds 100 milliliters, symptoms such as vomiting, sore throat, and diarrhea may occur, and it may even induce skin cancer or kidney diseases.

German Beer Is No Longer Pure!

In German beer, glyphosate reached 29.74 micrograms, which the examining experts considered a very terrifying number!

Names of the 14 German Beers Exposed for Pesticide Residues

Don't let your family drink these beers anymore. Drinking them is like drinking pesticide!

Source: Consumer Daily: Liu Wei; some materials from CCTV.com -END-