Looking at Spring Sugar｜In the wave of "youthfulness" in the liquor industry, how can yellow rice wine break through?

Ask AI · How can the young-oriented strategy of yellow rice wine break through regional limitations?

Currently, the 114th National Sugar and Wine Commodity Trade Fair hotel exhibition is in full swing in Chengdu. Among the booths at various hotel exhibitions, “youth-oriented” has become a key term, with wine companies launching “non-alcoholic” new products like “jiu,” and yellow rice wine company Kuaijishan (601579.SH) introducing new product “Shuangjiu” targeting young people.

When the “tipsy economy” meets Generation Z, and healthy drinking becomes a new consumer consensus, the centuries-old yellow rice wine stands at a crucial crossroads: how to break through in the wave of youth-oriented trends? This has become a common challenge for yellow rice wine companies at this year’s Sugar and Wine Fair.

Industry analysts point out that the youth-oriented strategy for yellow rice wine has moved from conceptual testing to a scaled promotion period of product innovation + scene breaking + channel reconstruction. Leading companies have achieved phased breakthroughs through lower alcohol content, portability, cross-industry collaborations, and online marketing. Generation Z and women are expected to become the core growth drivers.

Kuaijishan launches new product “Shuangjiu”

Has yellow rice wine also joined the “youth-oriented” battle?

Not only are liquor companies like Wuliangye, Luzhou Laojiao, and Shede implementing youth-oriented strategies, but during this Sugar and Wine Fair hotel exhibition, reporters from Nandu Bay Finance found that yellow rice wine companies are also trying to “capture the young demographic.”

Recently, Kuaijishan launched a new product “Shuangjiu” aimed at young consumers. According to reports, this product is marketed as “0 sugar, 0 fat, low purine,” with its purine content measured by a third party to be one-tenth that of regular beer. Sun Guochang, a provincial-level inheritor of Shaoxing yellow rice wine-making skills and the director of Kuaijishan Innovation Research Institute, stated that this product upgrades from “sparkling yellow rice wine” to “fermented sparkling yellow rice wine” through secondary fermentation and patented strains. Currently, Kuaijishan has established a dedicated production line for spontaneously fermented sparkling yellow rice wine.

It is understood that Kuaijishan positions “Shuangjiu” as a core product of its youth-oriented strategy. The company is currently gathering all channels and resources to create a product that carries the dual mission of brand youthfulness and nationwide market expansion, aiming to make “Shuangjiu” a key bridge connecting Kuaijishan with the new generation of consumers and breaking down communication barriers between time-honored brands and the young market.

In fact, this is not Kuaijishan’s first attempt at launching youth-oriented products. In 2024, Kuaijishan introduced the “One Smoke a Day” sparkling yellow rice wine, with publicly available data showing that this product achieved over ten million in sales within 12 hours during the 2025 618 shopping festival, with a three-day total GMV exceeding 50 million, and annual sales surpassing 100 million, with over 300 million exposures. Some analysts believe that this data verifies the potential for youth-oriented yellow rice wine from the market side and is one of the reasons Kuaijishan is launching more youth-oriented products.

Nandu Bay Finance reporters noted that not only Kuaijishan, many yellow rice wine companies have recently been implementing youth-oriented strategies, such as launching coffee yellow rice wine, lime yellow rice wine, and other products, and some yellow rice wine companies are collaborating with beer companies to introduce new offerings; a responsible person from a yellow rice wine company stated, “We must start from the real needs of consumers and make ‘the more you drink, the younger you become, the healthier you become’ a tangible reality.”

Behind the “youth-oriented” strategy

Why must yellow rice wine “change”?

Amid the collective adjustment in the liquor industry, the yellow rice wine sector shows characteristics such as “increased concentration.”

Public data shows that the number of large-scale yellow rice wine production enterprises has decreased from 121 in 2017 to 81 in 2023, accelerating industry clearing. At the same time, the market share of leading companies has rapidly increased. The China Alcoholic Drinks Association’s “2025 Mid-term Research Report on China’s Yellow Rice Wine Industry” indicates that in the first half of 2025, the CR3 of the yellow rice wine industry continued to rise, with leading companies achieving total revenue of 1.926 billion yuan, an increase of 3.4%; and a net profit of 176 million yuan, also an increase of 3.4%.

However, behind the rising market share of leading companies like Kuaijishan, the overall growth of the yellow rice wine market remains slow. According to a survey by the China Alcoholic Drinks Association, in the first half of this year, 58.2% and 63.4% of surveyed companies reported decreases in yellow rice wine revenue and profit, respectively. Some analysts believe that the industry is shifting from “scale expansion” to “quality improvement,” but the market scale itself still faces growth bottlenecks.

A greater challenge comes from the consumer side. The “2025 Mid-term Research Report on China’s Yellow Rice Wine Industry” reveals that among yellow rice wine consumers, those born after 1985 make up 45.7%, while those born after 1995 account for 23.3%—but this group shows a significantly low consumption frequency. This indicates that while young consumers’ awareness and acceptance of yellow rice wine have improved, they have not yet formed stable consumption habits. Additionally, the long-standing “regional” label of the yellow rice wine market has restricted the nationwide expansion of this category.

Analysts from Kaiyuan Securities point out that currently, yellow rice wine has a high share in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai, with national expansion still in its early stages and very low penetration in northern markets. However, leading companies have transitioned from “testing” to the “scaled promotion” stage, implementing product innovation + cultural empowerment + channel innovation simultaneously. Coupled with national expansion and youth orientation, yellow rice wine is expected to gradually break through regional limitations and open up new growth spaces.

Written by: Nandu · Bay Finance reporter Zhang Haixia Intern Liu Meixiu