“Made in Germany” Tops in Korean Import Beer Market

German beer beat Japanese beer, erstwhile superpower of Korean import beer market, and ranked top in the market this year. (image: afgen/flickr)

SEOUL, July 24 (Korea Bizwire) –  The brand power of “Germany” is dominating not only South Korea’s luxury automobile market, but one of the nation’s most favorite liquor sectors: import beer.

Just like the German national soccer team which managed to grab the championship of the 2014 Brazil World Cup in 24 years after the 1990 World Cup, German beer secured the No. 1 position in Korea’ competitive import beer market.

According to Lotte Mart’s analysis on its sales of imported beer by countries, German beer beat Japanese beer, erstwhile superpower of Korean import beer market, and ranked top in the market this year.

In 2010 when Korean beer lovers began full-scale import beer consumption, German beer could not even rank inside 5th place, unbefitting its nickname “home of beer.” During the year, American beers represented by Budweiser and Miller took the No. 1 spot with 20.4 percent of market share, followed by Japanese beer led by Asahi with an 18.7 percent market share.

As the Korea import beer market keeps growing, Japanese beer ranked top for three years consecutively since 2011 armed with famous premium beer brands of Sapporo and Suntory. In the meantime, German beer followed Japanese beer in the ranks and finally overtook the long-time rival with 29.9 percent of market share as of July 18 this year.

An official at Lotte Mart said, “There are more than 1,300 beer breweries in Germany and the country has a variety of beer brands leaning not too much on certain brands. As Korea’s import beer market matures, Koreans show their tendency to taste new beers and many new German brands are being introduced in Korea.”

Especially, “L Beer” brewed by 280-year-old Oettinger took more than a half of sales from German beer with 50.5 percent with its relatively low price of 1,600 won (US$1.56) per 500 milliliter can and high-quality taste.

Meanwhile, the import beer market keeps growing from 10.7 percent of sales in total beer market in Korea to the 26 percent mark this year. As the characteristics of German beer and Korean consumers’ trend dovetail, beer made in Germany is sweeping Korea’s import beer market.

By M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)