Society

Vintage Moutai fails to meet high sales expectations

By Shi Yingying (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-02-28 08:18

SHANGHAI - The earliest bottle of Moutai liquor ever seen on the market failed to attract any buyer at Shanghai's first vintage Moutai auction, despite the high spirits of collectors.

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The vintage liquor, produced in 1955, was thought to "stand a good chance of breaking the existing price record and winning the crown of the most expensive Moutai in the world" before the auction, according to Fan Ganping, vice-president of Shanghai International Commodity Auction Co Ltd.

Fan said the reason why the oldest Moutai failed to find a buyer was because the starting price has been set too high.

The starting price was 1.26 million yuan ($192,100).

The most expensive bottle of Moutai sold for 250,000 yuan.

Fan said that the bottles were collected from 600 residents across the city.

"We've seen more people sending their collections than we expected - around 500 people came in a day and a half, most of whom were elderly" he said.

"I watched the TV news last night and realized that you can easily sell an aged Moutai for ten thousands of yuan as long as it has been kept well," said 71-year-old retired worker Jiang Changrong. "That's why I'm here today to try my luck."

In total during the last three weeks, the auction agency welcomed more than 600 aged visitors like Jiang, who all came for one reason: they wanted to find a good buyer for their vintage Moutai.

And with good reason - a bottle of Moutai produced in 1958 sold for more than 1.46 million yuan ($220,884) at an auction in Hangzhou last September.

Many private Chinese investors are speculating on famous Chinese liquors, especially Moutai, although there have been claims that Kweichow Moutai Co Ltd, the liquor's producer, has been attempting to manipulate the market price, said Tony Jiang, associate wine educator from Shanghai Wine Club Association.

"It's possible that the manufacturer buys the vintage Moutai at a relatively high price at an auction to promote their own brand so that it will increase their prices later," said Jiang.

Jiang added that he thought the distribution of Moutai had a special quota system and "only 20 percent of the total goes to the market, the rest goes to State banquets and the army".

According to earlier reports by Xinhua News Agency, an increasing number of Chinese tourists have been buying Moutai sold in foreign shops because of the cheaper price. Xinhua said that a 375-milliliter bottle of 53-degree Flying Moutai sold at stores in Washington for 550 yuan, while the price in China was 1,050 yuan, almost twice as much.

On Jan 1, Kweichow Moutai raised the factory price of Flying Moutai by 20 percent, bringing the price to 619 yuan. It also suggested a maximum retail price of 959 yuan, 90 yuan higher than before.