Moutai makes a major move! Comprehensive overseas reforms and a crucial qualitative shift in internationalization?

Listing | Zhongfang Network

Review | Li Xiaoyan

On March 16th, at the Guiyang International Ecological Conference Center, over 180 Maotai international channel representatives from 66 countries and regions gathered to witness the launch of the Guizhou Maotai 2026 International Channel Merchants Association. During the event, Maotai officially released the “2026-2030 Guizhou Maotai International Market Transformation Plan,” which clearly emphasizes a consumer-centered approach, shifting from “channel-driven” to “consumer-driven” as the core direction. This marks the transition of Maotai’s internationalization from the initial stage of “going out” to a critical period of “going in” for qualitative change.

As a leader in China’s baijiu internationalization, Maotai has been exploring overseas markets for nearly seventy years. From entering the Japanese market in 1956 to integrating into the Belt and Road Initiative after 2016, Maotai has completed an initial global market layout over decades. Latest data shows that in the first three quarters of 2025, Maotai’s overseas revenue reached 3.893 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 204.38%. Although the proportion of total revenue is still to be improved, this high growth trend demonstrates the enormous potential of overseas markets.

Performance in specific categories is equally impressive. In 2025, Maotai Zodiac Liquor sales overseas increased by 135.5% year-on-year, becoming a growth driver within the product matrix. Duty-free channels doubled in sales, with Southeast Asian markets experiencing over four times growth, confirming the increasing recognition of Maotai products globally. To date, Maotai has added more than 20 overseas distributors, with channel networks covering 66 countries and regions, laying a solid foundation for future market expansion.

At the industry level, China’s baijiu exports in 2025 increased in volume but decreased in value. Export volume grew by 16,791.86 kiloliters, a 2.5% increase year-on-year, while export value dropped by $893 million, a 7.6% decline. The average export price decreased by 9.9% year-on-year, highlighting that the industry’s internationalization is still in the early stage of price-for-volume trade. However, Maotai, with its brand premium and quality commitment, accounts for over 70% of the industry’s export share, serving as a benchmark and trendsetter for China’s baijiu internationalization.

This association clearly states that Maotai will focus on product, price, and channel dimensions to promote the market-oriented transformation of the international market and break through long-standing development bottlenecks.

Product side: Break the current reliance on 53-degree Feitian as the sole support, and build a pyramid-shaped product matrix. Use 53-degree Feitian as the “base,” with premium, overseas cultural editions, Zodiac Liquor, and others as the “top,” while exploring and developing low-alcohol Maotai international editions to promote series liquors overseas. The elevation of low-alcohol products to a strategic level aims to help Maotai integrate into mainstream overseas consumption scenarios, meet diverse consumer needs, and shift from a single product support to a multi-driven product structure.

Price side: Address the challenge of “reflowed liquor” and improve the pricing governance system. For issues such as some online prices of overseas 53-degree Feitian Maotai being below domestic guidance prices, Maotai adheres to principles of “price matching, reasonable gradients,” and “market-oriented, dynamic adjustments,” establishing a dynamic adjustment mechanism. Full-process traceability is achieved through electronic tags and outer box coding, with joint efforts from customs and regulatory authorities to crack down on reflowed and cross-region goods, ensuring price alignment domestically and internationally, and safeguarding brand value and the interests of channel partners. Previously, Maotai suspended some channel supplies, signaling a clear move to regulate international channels.

Channel side: Reconstruct the network layout and create benchmark markets. Focus on core Asian markets and support North American markets, developing Southeast Asia and East Asia into replicable benchmark markets. New partner development follows the principles of “select the best, avoid disorderly expansion.” Collaborate with top international e-commerce platforms online, and deepen offline efforts in duty-free, supermarkets, catering, and private domains. Implement tiered and categorized management of channel partners, strengthen regional marketing and specialized training, and comprehensively improve consumer outreach.

Beyond these three main directions, Maotai is building a “Six Systems” framework to support its international transformation, moving from “point breakthroughs” to “systematic operations.”

• Product system: Develop a diverse matrix covering regular, premium, cultural, aged, and other categories to meet different consumer needs precisely.
• Pricing system: Maintain dynamic adjustments, balancing brand tone and market laws to strengthen price defenses.
• Channel system: Optimize a multi-structure network, achieving online and offline synergy.
• Market system: Use regional evaluation models to divide strategic, key, and general markets, focusing resources on creating exemplary markets.
• Cultural expression system: Strengthen cultural communication through sponsorships like the Global Chinese Business Conference, hosting “Maotai Night,” and creating quality expression manuals to build a standardized brand communication matrix.
• Compliance system: Establish full-process risk control mechanisms to ensure steady progress of internationalization.

Simultaneously, Maotai enhances support from five dimensions: organization, talent, culture, customer groups, and services. The import-export company shifts its focus back to market development, implementing the “Universal Plan” to reserve international talent, telling the Chinese baijiu story on high-end platforms, penetrating local circles through the Chinese community, and improving consumer experience through full-chain services.

Maotai’s internationalization has pioneered a new “systematic overseas expansion” model for China’s baijiu industry. Historically, China’s baijiu went abroad mainly through product exports and single-point promotion. Maotai, however, achieves comprehensive system capability output through integration of product, price, channel, operation, supply chain, and cultural communication.

This transformation fundamentally shifts the core logic: no longer solely relying on channel resources but directly reaching end consumers, using market demand to drive full-chain optimization. It marks a move from “scale expansion” to “value cultivation,” and from “product going overseas” to “systematic overseas expansion,” representing a long-term journey requiring patience and perseverance.

Of course, Maotai’s internationalization still faces challenges: cultivating overseas consumers needs continuous deepening; cultural integration and localization require ongoing exploration; balancing price systems and channel control tests long-term wisdom. As Maotai Group Chairman Chen Hua states, internationalization is not only a response to the trend of the times and a strategic move to serve national development but also a strategic choice to build a “world-class enterprise and brand.”

Standing at a new historical starting point, Maotai is advancing with a combination of breaking and establishing, with systematic planning to achieve qualitative change in its internationalization. Every step of its exploration not only influences its own global development but also paves the way for the entire Chinese baijiu industry to break growth bottlenecks and gain global recognition, helping Chinese baijiu shine even brighter on the world stage of spirits.