By Park Si-soo
Korea is infamous for its binge and heavy drinking culture. But this trend is sinking, with the focus on wellbeing and a healthy lifestyle rather than on work and social networking.
In 2016, the combined amount of alcohol unloaded from domestic liquor suppliers’ warehouses was 3.995 million kiloliters, according to Statistics Korea data. This was a 1.9 percent down from a year earlier. The fall was led by reduced consumption of popular alcoholic beverages such as soju (down 2.6 percent), beer (down 3.7 percent) and makgeolli (down 7.2 percent).
Whisky consumption has fallen nine years in a row. In 2016, nearly 1.669 million boxes of whisky were sold, down 41 percent from 2008.
OECD data shows this trend is not limited to Korea. In 2007, member countries’ annual alcohol consumption per capita was 9.8 liters. It slipped to 9.2 liters in 2010 and nine in 2015.
The continued decline has taken a toll on domestic liquor makers’ bottom lines and also forced them to cut staff.
The nation’s biggest liquor maker, OB Brewery, is in talks with its labor union over layoffs. Another major supplier, Hite Jinro, sacked about 300 workers -- 9 percent of its payroll -- last year.