On June 1, the "new national standard" of baijiu was officially implemented, and the "new national standard" was released in May of the previous year, making precise definitions of baijiu and flavored liquor, and clearly expressing the characteristics of the category.
        
The "new national standard" of liquor is about to be implemented
        
In May of the previous year, the State Administration for the Supervision and Administration of Shopping Malls and the Standardization Administration of the People's Republic of China officially issued the "2021 No. 7 Announcement of China's National Standards", GB/T 15109-2021 "Liquor Industry Terminology" and GB/T 17204-2021 "Beverage Wine Terms and Classification". During the new national standard, the newly revised national standard updates the boundary of "baijiu" to "distilled liquor made by steaming, saccharification, fermentation, distillation, aging and blending with grain as the main raw material, using large koji, small koji, bran koji, enzyme preparations and yeast as saccharified starter cultures".
        
For solid liquor, the rules shall not add edible alcohol and substances that do not occur in color and aroma that occur during fermentation itself.
        
For liquid liquor and solid-liquid liquor, the rule can increase grain consumption to brew alcohol, and do not use color, aroma and flavor substances that do not occur in their own fermentation.
        
It is worth noting that in the two new national standards, the boundary theory of flavored liquor has been added. That is, it is made of solid liquor, liquid liquor, solid-liquid liquor or edible alcohol as the base, and the distribution of food additives is increased, and it is a liquor with a liquor style. That is to say, the new national standard removes flavored liquor from the classification of liquor, and clarifies that it belongs to blended wine.
        
It is reported that the new national standard will be officially implemented on June 1 this year.
        
The "new national standard" will impact the low-end liquor shopping mall
        
In the past two years, the light bottle wine mall has continued to expand and accelerate its development across prices, categories, consumption and scenarios. iMedia Consulting expects that by 2025, the scale of China's liquor shopping malls will reach 950 billion yuan, and the scale of light bottle wine shopping malls will account for one-ninth of the overall volume. Under this setting, famous wines such as Wuliangye, Luzhou Old Cellar, Fenjiu, and Shede have been multiplied, and the ceiling of high-line light bottle wine has been constantly rewritten.
        
Due to the different degrees of influence of the "new national standard" on the subdivision of light bottle wine, according to the consumption level and price level, it is fundamentally possible to subdivide light bottle wine products into three categories: one is low-price and low-quality category, with a unit price of less than 15 yuan; The second is the high-quality and low-cost category, with a unit price of 15~30 yuan; The third is 30 yuan and above, which belongs to the medium and high line light bottles. The degree of policy impact varies from level to level.
        
The Luzhou Laojiao Erqu Wine Series, which is attributed to the flavored liquor, is a representative product of Luzhou Laojiao's low-end liquor, with a price of only a dozen yuan. Last year, it was discontinued due to the pressure of the "new national standard", and a new black cover second song was launched together, but the new product shopping mall is not expected to be ambitious.
        
In 2021, the sales volume of Luzhou Laojiao fell by 35.64%, ranking first among A-share liquor companies. During this period, low-end products suffered a cliff-like decline in production and sales, with the production of "other alcohols" falling by 47%, sales falling by 52%, and revenue falling by 8.74%. Although Luzhou Laojiao broke into the top three in the high-end liquor category with 1573, its low-end shortcomings still need to be filled.
        
The growth logic of Shunxin agriculture, which is dominated by low-end wine, is "market share progress + nationalization". In the light bottle wine mall, Niulan Mountain occupies the price band below 20 yuan, and is the leader of this price band. However, after the "new national standard" comes out, the second pot head of the white bottle of Niulanshan will no longer be attributed to the scale of liquor. Last year, Shunxin Agriculture's sales also fell by more than 5%.
        
The entry threshold for liquor has improved
        
The "new national standard" urges the requirements of high-quality development of light bottle wine and accelerates the trend of consumption upgrading. With the awareness of customer quality awareness, quality has become the bottom line of consumption, and showing a trend of baseline elevation, high-quality pure grain wine is ushering in a broader incremental space, becoming an important guide for the "upward" and "high" development of mass consumption.
        
Cai Xuefei, a professional analyst of liquor, pointed out that the biggest value of the "new national standard" of liquor is to equate liquor with grain. "The underlying logic of making grain into Chinese liquor follows the traditional cognition of customers in legal theory and standardizes the relevant standards of the profession."
        
Industry insiders pointed out that the revision of the new national standard puts forward higher requirements for the quality of liquor production, and plays an important role in driving the quality progress of the domestic liquor industry and standardizing the production and operation of liquor enterprises. Together, the new national standard makes precise statements on baijiu, flavored liquor, etc., and clearly expresses the characteristics of the category, so that customers can read and understand better.