As a regional liquor, rice wine has not performed well in recent years. Coupled with the lack of consumer cultivation, the awareness of rice wine by young consumer groups has gradually become a food accompaniment to cooking wine. In this context, the Shaoxing Municipal Government has taken corresponding measures to protect the development of rice wine. On September 23, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily noted through the official website of the Shaoxing Municipal People's Government that the Shaoxing Municipal Government Office (Research Office, Organ Affairs Bureau) issued the "Shaoxing Yellow Wine Protection and Development Regulations", which required the development of rice wine from the aspects of protection and inheritance, innovative development, supervision and management.
Zhu Danpeng, an analyst in the Chinese food industry, said that Shaoxing City regards rice wine as a local business card and guarantees it through legislation, which can ensure the healthy, benign and orderly development of the entire rice wine industry. At the same time, enterprises with backward production capacity and substandard quality will also withdraw from market competition, which is conducive to the improvement of the entire Shaoxing rice wine industry structure.
Policy support
The Beijing Business Daily reporter learned that the "Regulations on the Protection and Development of Shaoxing Yellow Wine" has a total of six chapters and thirty-two articles, which make detailed requirements for the development of Shaoxing yellow wine from the aspects of protection and inheritance, innovative development, supervision and management, and legal responsibility. The Ordinance will come into force on 1 October 2021.
It is reported that in terms of protection and inheritance, the "Regulations on the Protection and Development of Shaoxing Yellow Wine" requires that the Shaoxing Municipal People's Government should establish a directory of historical and cultural protection of Shaoxing yellow wine. For the production enterprises of Shaoxing liquor, a geographical indication product that has obtained the right to use the special indication of geographical indications in accordance with the law, production shall be organized in accordance with the corresponding standards and management norms.
For enterprises engaged in the production and operation of Shaoxing rice wine, 5 prohibited acts are clearly stipulated. It is forbidden to add industrial enzyme preparations to the brewing of geographical indication products Shaoxing wine; it is forbidden to fraudulently use or forge special indications for geographical indications; it is forbidden to use trademarks identical or similar to the certification trademarks on product packaging without permission; it is forbidden to violate the regulations on the management of food labels by falsely marking the age of the wine, fraudulently using shaoxing rice wine brewing techniques, etc., and it is forbidden to carry out other acts that violate laws and regulations. In terms of supervision and management, the market supervision and management departments shall strengthen the supervision and management of the quality of Shaoxing rice wine products, intellectual property rights, etc., formulate and improve the rules for the management of the use of certification trademarks in accordance with law, and strengthen the management of the use of certification trademarks and the inspection and supervision of the goods of certification trademarks.
Sun Yunyao, deputy director of the Standing Committee of the Shaoxing Municipal People's Congress, pointed out that the Regulations on the Protection and Development of Shaoxing Yellow Wine is the first local regulation in the country to standardize the protection and development of rice wine, and has the local characteristics of Shaoxing. The implementation of this legislation can solve the outstanding problems in the protection and development of Shaoxing rice wine and promote the high-quality development of Shaoxing rice wine.
The market needs to be nurtured
Looking at the development of rice wine in recent years, although it has improved, its performance is not ideal. In this context, rice wine companies have also continuously upgraded their products and laid out the high-end market.
Beijing Business Daily reporter noted that the current products of rice wine enterprises are mainly medium and high-end. According to the semi-annual report, Guyue Longshan achieved sales revenue of 520 million yuan in high-end liquor in the first half of this year, and ordinary liquor achieved sales revenue of 211 million yuan. Huijishan high-end rice wine achieved sales revenue of 358 million yuan, accounting for more than 60%. Jinfeng liquor industry in the middle and high-grade rice wine to achieve sales revenue of 179.9 million yuan, accounting for more than 70%. Through the data, it is not difficult to find that the products sold by rice wine enterprises are mainly medium and high-end products, and the sales revenue accounts for nearly 70% of the total revenue.
However, from the actual situation, the high-end products of Guyue Longshan are not bought by consumers. According to the Tmall platform Guyue Longshan flagship store, the monthly sales of the "National Brew 1959" Qingyu Edition and the National Jade Edition were 42 and 17 respectively. The best-selling product in the store is Guyue Longshan Shaoxing Yellow Wine Eight-year Flower Carving Wine 500ml × 6 bottles of whole box gift box old wine 8 years glutinous rice wine sweet wine, monthly sales of 10,000 +.
Xiao Zhuqing, a Chinese consumer goods marketing expert, said that rice wine has not yet formed a certain effect in terms of value recognition and social symbols, so there is no need for rice wine to be high-end. Because consumers' cognition of the rice wine category is not comprehensive, there is no way to do the brand.
In fact, in addition to the lack of high-end, the cultivation of rice wine to consumers is also relatively weak. Beijing Business Daily reporter found that the placement of rice wine is not conspicuous when visiting the Huilongguan area, and it is mostly displayed on the spice shelf or the small bottle of liquor shelf, which is in stark contrast with the independent shelf of liquor. Beijing Business Daily reporter randomly interviewed consumers to learn that northern consumers buy rice wine, more to match hairy crabs or as a seasoning, and young consumers' cognition of rice wine is mostly based on spices. Consumer Xiao Shi (pseudonym) told the Beijing Business Daily reporter that the family is a southerner, but basically has no habit of drinking yellow wine. Only the grandparents have a drinking habit, and their parents and themselves do not drink rice wine. Rice wine is more like health wine, suitable for the older generation to drink, they usually drink more beer, and their father is mainly liquor.
A different path
Nationalization for rice wine enterprises, is already a cliché, but trapped in the region, customs and other factors, the nationalization effect of enterprise layout is still not ideal, which has become the main reason why the performance of rice wine enterprises is difficult to improve.
In the face of the delay in nationalization, enterprises are constantly seeking new ways out. It is understood that Guyue Longshan is also actively carrying out coordinated industrial development in order to lay out the national layout. The Beijing Business Daily reporter learned that Through the Daughter Red Company, Guyue Longshan has formed a clear liquor product series such as high-end sauce wine, "Jiangnan Famous Brew", "Pure Bad Roast", etc., and uses the sauce wine category to empower the Daughter Red brand to accelerate the promotion of the brand in the country and promote the development of the main business of rice wine.
In July this year, Huijishan also launched a new product project 1743 Yellow Bar. Fu Zukang, general manager of Huijishan Company, said that the creation of the yellow bar is not only hoping to increase consumers' experience and cognition of rice wine, but also a beneficial attempt to develop the rice wine culture. It is understood that consumers in the yellow bar, in addition to wine tasting, can also experience other rice wine products such as yellow wine milk tea, yellow wine popsicles, yellow wine chocolate and so on.
It is worth noting that the "Regulations on the Protection and Development of Shaoxing Rice Wine" requires that the Shaoxing Municipal Government should set up the Shaoxing Rice Wine Industry Development Fund, formulate an action plan for the development of the Shaoxing Rice Wine Industry, promote the development of the cluster, achieve complementary advantages, enhance the brand recognition of Shaoxing Rice Wine, and enhance the core competitiveness of the industry. At the same time, Shaoxing rice wine production enterprises are encouraged to develop new rice wine and functional rice wine that meet different consumer needs.
Industry insiders said that the release of the "Shaoxing Rice Wine Protection and Development Regulations" is positive news for China's rice wine market, which can optimize the layout of the rice wine industry and promote industrial integration and upgrading. At the same time, the "Shaoxing Yellow Wine Protection and Development Regulations" also strengthened law enforcement supervision, which can give rice wine enterprises a certain opportunity for development. Enterprises should seize the opportunity to improve the quality of products at the same time, truly let consumers understand and accept rice wine, in order to find new growth points.
Beijing Business Daily reporter Liu Yibo Zhai Fengrui