Baijiu makers in high spirits on foreign sales

"There is always a silver lining. In the long run, the current low international presence of baijiu could point to enormous future potential. As baijiu has become somewhat saturated at home, it prompts Chinese distilleries to turn to foreign markets to scramble for new drivers of business growth," Wang said.

In view of the terroir craze that's sprawling across the spirits world, shaping everything from gin and vodka to rum and Tequila, baijiu producers like Shede Spirits are hoping that novel brewing narratives will lure curious consumers.

Zhu Yingcai, general manager of the marketing department at Shede Spirits, said that the brand is distilled in the Sichuan Basin, in the north of the province, which has become the largest baijiu production base in China.

In the 1970s, the company took the lead in developing the concept of eco-brewing and put it into practice, building an eco-brewing industrial park covering 6.5 square kilometers, where the greening rate has reached 98.5 percent, Zhu said.

A total of 32 ecological brewing plants have been set up in the park, including old cellars dating back centuries, which have bacterial flora persevered for thousands of years, Zhu said, adding that all cellars are made of uncultivated and nonpolluting yellow mud from local resources.

Inside these cellars, the mash is continuously fermented in underground mud pits ranging from three to 15 years so they develop their own character, Zhu said, adding that baijiu is a special consumer product that embodies Chinese characteristics and philosophy, as the saying goes that "a good wine matures over time".

More baijiu presence, for sure, has been seen on the global spirits stage, but it's still relatively modest. According to a survey by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization last year, the awareness of international consumers towards baijiu stands at only 0.7 percent.

During the annual sessions of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the country's top political advisory body, Sun Baoguo, president of Beijing Technology and Business University, submitted a proposal on drafting international standards for baijiu and supporting traditional Chinese culture to go global.

Without holistic planning on a national level, it's difficult to foster synergy among domestic distilleries and industry associations to facilitate baijiu expanding offshore, Sun said.

It's urgently needed to formulate international standards for baijiu and put it in an appropriate categorization as part of efforts to help the beverage compete with other spirits on an equal footing, Sun added.

In China, liquor including baijiu does not get special geographical categorization, while spirits and other alcoholic beverages are divided into special foods in regions like Europe and the United States. Region-specific classification leads to strikingly different tariff rates, Sun said, adding that export tariffs on Chinese baijiu are much higher than those of imported foreign spirits.

Zhu from Shede Spirits said that baijiu may be in the early stages of finding audiences outside its home country, but it also has the potential to enter the mainstream cocktail culture — particularly as consumers become more experimental and develop a taste for the new and unique.