Liquor merchant Charles Oon describes his past 21 years selling the Chinese white spirit baijiu in overseas markets as a rollercoaster ride.

In Singapore, where Oon is based, a bottle of China’s leading brand Moutai retailed around 400 Singapore dollars ($310) in 2023 and has at times been priced up to 15% higher than in the Chinese mainland. Yet the past two years have seen a slump. In 2025, Moutai’s terminal wholesale price hovered at just 300 Singapore dollars a bottle.

Facing a downward trend, Oon decided to pivot. In October, he cast his net wider by distributing other major Chinese baijiu brands, including Guizhou Xijiu, seeking out fresh opportunities across Southeast Asia.

Despite the vast market potential, changing local consumption habits has not proved easy.

Heady cocktail

Oon opened Singapore’s first Moutai specialty store in 2006 before expanding into Malaysia and Cambodia. With its signature white porcelain bottle, red ribbon, and “sauce aroma” — jiang xiang, a nod to its soy and umami notes — Moutai is regarded as China’s finest spirit. But that prestige doesn’t fully translate to international markets.

“Selling baijiu in Singapore is incredibly challenging. People are accustomed to Western spirits. Very few know about, or have a taste for, Chinese baijiu,” says Oon, founder of the Singapore Chinese Baijiu Association.

Although more than 70% of Singapore’s population is of Chinese descent, Oon says wine and whisky are the preferred choices for high-end alcohol. Across Southeast Asia, beer accounted for nearly 81% of all alcohol consumption in 2023, according to the market data agency Statista.

However, in recent years, a new wave of high-income Chinese immigrants has settled in Southeast Asia, particularly Singapore, while Chinese capital and companies continue to expand across the region, creating a growing expatriate consumer base for baijiu.

Oon initially promoted the Chinese spirit by sponsoring beauty pageants and golf tournaments, hosting forums, and co-organizing tasting events with Michelin-starred restaurants. However, as international trade and travel resumed after the pandemic, baijiu enterprises increased their focus on overseas markets for business growth and cultural outreach. As a result, distributors like Oon adapted their strategies, shifting toward direct partnerships with baijiu producers.

Oon now organizes about 20 promotional events a year, with sponsorship from brands including Moutai, Xijiu, and Jiannanchun. He says such financial support wasn’t available in earlier years.

On Oct. 10, Oon hosted a tasting dinner in Singapore featuring lychee-flavored Xijiu cocktails, Chinese folk music, and dragon and lion dances, with staff dressed in the traditional attire of the Miao ethnic group, which is distributed across southern China and Southeast Asia. Guests were mostly first-generation Chinese immigrants or locally born Chinese from the worlds of politics, business, and academia.

Spillover effect

China’s baijiu market has been undergoing a period of adjustment in recent years. Major companies have faced performance pressures — analysts expect Moutai to lower its growth target to 5% this year, down from 9% in 2025 — as well as struggled with high inventory levels and price inversions within distribution channels. This has prompted a shift in focus to overseas markets, particularly those with large Chinese populations.

Moutai’s overseas revenue surpassed 5 billion yuan ($715.9 million) for the first time in 2024. In the first three quarters of 2025, the company reported overseas revenue of 3.89 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.7%.

Singapore today has six authorized Moutai distributors. Not far from Oon’s two-story specialty shop is a Moutai boutique store that’s been open since 2019. A salesperson there says it receives some walk-in traffic, but business largely relies on orders from regular clients. The main goal is to expand the brand’s local presence.

With more distributors, competition has intensified. Some maintain informal price agreements — for example, keeping a bottle of Moutai Flying Fairy 53% around 350 Singapore dollars — while all offer discounts for bulk purchases.

However, observers have noted that although there are six authorized distributors, at least 10 companies sell Moutai in Singapore, suggesting the presence of parallel imports and even counterfeit goods.

Cross-border reselling by overseas distributors not only disrupts the market’s pricing structure and erodes distributors’ profit margins, ultimately undermining brand value, but also creates opportunities for the sale of fake liquor.

These are fresh challenges brought about by rapid expansion. However, for China’s baijiu producers, expanding distributor networks means access to diverse resources and networks, which are essential to boost overseas sales and brand visibility. As one industry insider put it, the success of baijiu’s global expansion depends on the passion of local distributors.

At their Q3 briefing in November, Moutai executives addressed the issue of parallel imports, stating that they had strengthened market controls, increased enforcement, and suspended supply to some channels.

Oon says that customers can now trace bottles of Moutai to specific distributors using the company’s official iMoutai app, making it easier to verify their authenticity and country of origin. Jiannanchun also made inroads in the Singaporean market in 2025, while Xijiu and Laojiao expanded their sales channels.

“With the domestic market under pressure, expansion into Southeast Asia offers a potential turning point” for baijiu companies, according to a March report by Ping An Securities.

Untapped potential

Overseas markets for baijiu are small but growing. China’s baijiu exports totaled $966 million in 2024, a year-on-year increase of more than 20%, with Southeast Asian countries accounting for $149 million, up nearly 25% from the previous year.

Yet, winning over shoppers is no simple task. Although the region shares a similar tropical climate, its 11 nations are a mosaic of religious, political, and cultural landscapes, all of which shape consumer habits.

High-end supermarkets dedicate entire aisles to the wines of France and Australia, while popular beers like Tiger and Heineken occupy prime shelf space, yet baijiu is largely found only in Chinese supermarkets. As a result, brands have had to localize their marketing strategies.

In Singapore, for example, Laojiao has focused on cultivating the “three pillars” of the community — the financial sector, universities, and business associations — and set up branded displays at Scarlett Supermarket outlets, a local chain focusing on Chinese products, to find new customers for its Luzhou Laojiao Guojiao 1573.

Meanwhile, in Indonesia, a vast archipelago, the baijiu company has partnered with premier liquor retailer Red & White, providing access to a network of high-end stores across major cities. Laojiao has also opened its first overseas flagship store in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s largest city, to serve up cultural education and tasting events.

In addition to marketing, companies also need to manage pricing channels. The prices of premium baijiu abroad typically mirror the market trend in China. Maintaining this consistency remains a key challenge for baijiu’s global expansion.

“Famous Western spirits like Louis XIII cognac don’t experience such dramatic price fluctuations,” Oon says, adding that while distributors naturally focus on maintaining profit margins, they are equally concerned with the long-term brand value of baijiu products.

In September, Oon’s son, David, traveled to Bangkok for a Moutai conference, where he exchanged insights with distributors from around the world. There, he concluded that although overseas markets represent just a small fraction of the baijiu market, an ocean of untapped potential awaits the next generation to explore.

Reported by Wu Bingcong.

A version of this article originally appeared in Jiemian News. It has been translated and edited for brevity and clarity, and is republished here with permission.

Translator: Chen Yue; editors: Wang Juyi and Hao Qibao.

(Header image: Shijue Focus/VCG)