Moutai chairman refutes fake liquor reports

Fake Moutai at most accounts for 5 percent of the famous liquor's total sales, said Ji Keliang, honorary chairman of Kuichaw Moutai Co Ltd, refuting media reports saying that 90 percent of Moutai liquor circulating in the market was fake, local media reported on Monday.

Some previous reports said that the annual output of Kuichaw Moutai was only 20,000 tons in 2009 whereas its consumption volume in 2010 amounted to 200,000 tons.

Ji told reporters that the sales revenue of Kuichaw Moutai alone was over 20 billion yuan ($3.17 billion) in 2011, which means sales of Moutai would amount to 200 billion yuan if the reports were true.

"Given the fact that the entire liquor industry only reaped 300-plus billion yuan last year, that would leave no place for other liquor producers at all," Ji made the remarks at the 11th People's Congress of the Communist Party of Southwest China's Guizhou province.

During the past three years, the amount of fake Moutai busted annually equaled to only one percent of the 30,000 tons of liquor sold by Kuichaw Moutai, according to Ji, he estimated that fake Moutai would make up 5 percent of the market at most.

Kuichaw Moutai has been teaming up with local governments in cracking down on its fake products. Ji added that the company will introduce new anti-counterfeit technology in the future.