This performance has broken the positive growth trend of the liquor industry for many years, and further shows that liquor companies urgently need to find a breakthrough in sales growth to get rid of the dilemma of declining performance.
Picture source: Tuchuang
Performance is under pressure, liquor companies seek overseas market
In these attempts, "Wine Liquor Going Overseas" has become an important choice for many liquor companies. The "2025 China Liquor Market Mid-term Research Report" of the China Wine Industry Association shows that in 2025 there has been63.9%'s liquor company layout may be expanding overseas markets.
Picture source: Tuchuang
In order to seize the overseas market and enhance the international influence of the brand, major domestic liquor companies have actively formulated diversified strategies and invested resources to deepen their overseas markets.
In terms of promotion methods,Enterprises increase their visibility by sponsoring various large-scale events, covering sports events, cultural exchanges, international conferences and other fields.
For example, Luzhou LaojiaoBecame the global official partner of the Australian Open since 2018, and has become the world's top partner of the ITTF World Cup since 2023;Kweichow Moutai Established strategic cooperation with the Asian Professional Golf Tour and became the core partner of the three Asian Tour flagship events in the 2025 season; during the 2025 Annual Meeting of the Boao Forum for Asia,WuliangyeDebut at the event as the "Honorary Strategic Partner of the 2025 Annual Meeting of Boao Forum for Asia 2025 Annual Meeting of "Designated Wine for Boao Forum for Asia 2025 Annual Meeting".
In addition, holding a liquor cocktail bartending competition is also an important way to expand overseas markets.
Image source: Unsplash
FenjiuSuccessfully held the 2024 Fenjiu Cocktail Competition in Stockholm; on July 23, 2025, the British Bartenders Association, Kweichow MoutaiThe "2025 British National Bartending Competition: Moutai Exploration Tour" co-organized with Jazz Trading London Ltd was successfully held at the London Oriental Bar LucyWong.
At the same time, traditional advertising is not absent, Outdoor billboards in San Francisco, large-scale digital advertisements in New York Times Square, etc. are all helping liquor brands strengthen their presence in the overseas market.
Image source: Unsplash
Zhenjiu Lidu Groupis also one of the important liquor companies that are deploying overseas markets. The company said: "We are reaching overseas consumers through various ways, including actively participating in internationally renowned liquor and food exhibitions, localization offline activities of exporting countries, promoting export products to enter five-star hotels and Michelin restaurants, and at the same time creating overseas joint products to expand overseas markets from multiple dimensions."
This type of diversified layout strategy has laid the foundation for the increase in the influence of liquor companies and the growth of overseas performance. From the perspective of actual results, the overseas influence of the leading liquor brands continues to rise.
On mainstream overseas social media, Moutai, Wuliangye and others have gained a lot of fans, which shows that the penetration of liquor companies in overseas markets is gradually increasing.
In addition, Some liquor companies have also achieved growth in overseas performance.
Wine wine encounters a bottleneck when going overseas, and multiple challenges are waiting to be broken
Although liquor has achieved some achievements in overseas markets, it still faces many limitations in the process of "going overseas".
First of all, due to factors such as cultural identity and consumption habits, the market for liquor going overseas is mainly concentrated in the Asia-Pacific region where there are more Chinese people.
Image source: Unsplash
At present, countries with concentrated Chinese people (especially Southeast Asian countries and regions) have become the key market for liquor companies to focus on.
Zhao Jing, chairman of the China Region of the Brussels International Liquor Grand Prix (CMB), said: "The Southeast Asian market is the first stop for most wine companies to go overseas, especially Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. These countries have a large base of Chinese people and have a food culture scenario of "drinking together". Moreover, under the RCEP framework, tariffs have been gradually reduced, and the overall promotion cost is relatively low."
At the same time, she also paid attention to the development potential of other markets: "Countries jointly built by the Belt and Road, such as the UAE, Kazakhstan, have gradually entered the vision of wine companies. Although the consumption volume of these markets is not large at this stage, policy communication is smooth and economic and trade cooperation is closely linked. You can often enter through national platforms such as China Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone and Cultural Exchange Year to achieve the soft expansion of "leading the market with policies and leading the products with culture". "
In addition, the complex tariff policies and compliance requirements of different countries have also increased the actual difficulty and cost of liquor going overseas.
The report of the China Wine Industry Association shows that tariffs and trade barriers (accounting for 60.0%) are one of the main challenges faced by liquor manufacturers for export or going overseas.
Data source: China Wine Industry Association Tabulation: Wine Magazine
Currently,The tax policies for alcohol products in different countries vary greatly, and some countries will also set higher tariffs on spirit-related products.
Related compliance requirements are also a major obstacle to the overseas visit of liquor.
Image source: Unsplash
It is reported that liquor goes through three main processes: First, liquor companies must obtain a series of export compliance qualifications in China; secondly, they must complete product certification and import license in the import country; finally, liquor companies must complete customs clearance and customs declaration processes before the products can be officially exported to their destination.
CMB also encountered many challenges in the overseas promotion of liquor in transportation, customs declaration and other aspects. Zhao Jing said: "In terms of logistics, liquor is listed as a dangerous product due to its high alcohol content. It requires special shock-proof and leak-proof packaging, and also marked with warning signs, which not only increases the cost and increases the difficulty of operation; when clearing customs, a large number of documents are required, and the customs will also conduct strict inspections on the goods. Any error in any link will affect the shipment process."
The overseas market has great potential, and multi-path exploration of internationalization
Although liquor faces many challenges in going overseas, the overseas market still has a lot of room for development.
Data shows that the current global spirit export scale exceeds US$40 billion, while China's liquor exports account for only 2.4% of the world's total. In the future, as liquor companies continue to persist and innovate, they will surely open up new markets and promote liquor to truly go to the world.
Picture source: Tuchuang
Zhenjiu Lidu Group believes that to help liquor go overseas better, we can start from two aspects. The company said: "First, we must innovate cultural communication and experience methods, and tell liquor stories in an international context, such as attracting overseas consumers through cocktail mixing competitions and food matching experiences. At the same time, we should promote the application of liquor brewing skills to the world intangible cultural heritage and enhance global identity; secondly, we should build a diversified channel of "online + offline", rely on e-commerce and social platforms to carry out marketing and drainage online, layout high-end catering, duty-free systems and retail terminals offline, and explore the creation of liquor cultural experience space to enhance brand immersion and consumption convenience."
Establishing a unified industry standard is also of great significance to liquor going overseas. Zhao Jing said that to promote the internationalization of liquor, the liquor industry needs to gather overall strength and concentrate resources to carry out liquor culture dissemination work on a global scale, and at the same time, it is necessary to integrate product quality specifications and price gradient standards applicable to the entire industry.
Picture source: Tuchuang
In addition, she also mentioned: "The globalization of sake and Japanese whiskey is actually the event since the 21st century. China and Japan are both major East Asian countries, and the liquor industry can completely learn from some mature experience from their globalization process."
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Written and edited | Susan
