Rapper Jay Park's Won Spirit to purchase 10,000 tons of rice for its popular soju

[Photo by Lee Seung-hwan]

A young Korean liquor company founded by Korean-American rapper and entrepreneur Jay Park will be purchasing 10,000 tons of rice from Wonju, Gangwon Province next year to meet the explosive demand for its hit soju products. The volume is.

Won Spirit Co. told Maeil Business Newspaper on Tuesday that it has already delivered its plan to the region’s agricultural cooperative to purchase 10,000 tons of rice next year, which is equivalent to almost all rice crops from Wonju for a year.

The company based in Wonju uses a locally-produced rice variety to manufacture distilled soju under the brand name of Won Soju and Won Soju Spirit.

The alcoholic beverages from the rapper-turned-entrepreneur’s company became a phenomenal hit immediately after its full-scale commercial launch in the second half of this year. Cumulative sales of Won Soju and Won Soju Spirit available online and at local convenience stores amounted to 800,000 bottles worth some 10 billion won ($7.3 million) as of end-August.

Supply cannot keep up with demand for the Jay Park spirits, according to the company. Won Spirit is conservatively setting its rice purchase amount at 5,200 tons next year for domestic sales but if it wants to export its product, the company needs about 10,000 tons of rice, a company official said. That’s higher than rice purchases planned by any of other Korean liquor firms that usually make diluted soju.

Won Soju spirits are distilled from fermented Wonju rice, Totomi, whereas widely consumed soju brands in Korea such as Chamisul and Cheoeum-Cheoreom are diluted liquors.

Diluted soju is made in almost the same way as distilled soju, but water is added to the bottle to lower the alcohol content.

The local soju industry gives a surprising response to Won Spirit’s massive rice purchase plan. The entire diluted soju industry purchased only 7,000 tons of rice from local farmers in the first half.

Diluted soju companies use state-stocked rice reserved for three to four years and its price is one-sixth that of freshly harvested rice used for Jay Park’s soju, and the price is still expensive for ethanol, the raw material of diluted soju, which depends on the cheapest grains of the year, such as Vietnamese tapioca or Brazilian sugar cane. It is inevitably difficult for diluted soju companies to use more Korean rice unless the price of Korean rice is cheaper compared to imported crops.

[ⓒ Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]