Vietnam, perfect overseas base for Korean soju

The “Jinro BBQ” restaurant at Ta Hien Beer Street in Hanoi, Vietnam. Courtesy of Hite Jinro

Driving southeast for more than two hours along the six-lane Haiphong Highway from Vietnam's capital Hanoi on June 10, I arrived at Tai Binh Province in the Red River Delta in northern Vietnam where a vast plain stretched out like a green carpet against the sky. After bumping along the rural road for a moment, I caught a glimpse of the site of Hite Jinro's first overseas factory in the Green I’Park Industrial Complex in the Taibin Special Economic Zone. It was a construction site, which is 11 times the size of a football field, of the base for the production of Jinro soju that will spread out around the world in two years.

In October last year, Hite Jinro decided to build an 82,000㎡ (24,830 pyeong) factory in Vietnam. This is to fulfill its global goal of reaching 500 billion won in overseas sales by 2030. Construction will begin early next year, and the plant will produce soju for export from 2026. The initial production target is 1 million boxes (30 million bottles) per year. As green grape, strawberry, and grapefruit are gaining huge popularity overseas, the company plans to install five types of fruit soju production lines first at the plant. “The soju produced in Vietnam will be sold locally and exported to Southeast Asia, including Thailand and Malaysia," said Sung-hoon Jung, president of Jinro Soju in Vietnam.

Although Jinro Soju is a popular alcohol in Korea, there were doubts that it could penetrate into the daily lives of people around the world and become a popular drink like beer and wine. To find an answer, I headed to Ta Hien Beer Street near Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi's old city center.

When I asked a worker promoting soju, "Is Jinro soju really popular here?" she said, "The Green grape-flavored one is the best," and offered me to taste it.

Of the 78 pubs on the beer street, 64 were selling Jinro fruit soju and Chamisul Fresh. The price was between 120,000 and 150,000 dong (between 6,000 and 8,000 won) per bottle, and I was surprised that it is considered fairly luxurious liquor in Vietnam. It was three times more expensive than Budweiser (50,000 dong) sold at pubs.

"I drink soju about once a week because it tastes like clean vodka or smooth wine," said a woman in her 20s who was drinking soju at an outdoor table. "I also enjoy listening to K-pop, such as BTS and Seventeen, as well as Korean food, such as tteokbokki and gimbap," she smiled.

When I walked into “Jinro BBQ,” a Korean-style BBQ restaurant, I could not tell if I was in Vietnam or Korea. The restaurant was filled with locals sipping soju as pork belly was sizzling on a grill.

"The restaurant has become a popular place for birthdays of women in their 20s and dinners for office workers of the middle class or higher," said Kim Kwang-wook, CEO of Jinro BBQ. "There are also a growing number of enthusiasts who enjoy 'somac' (mixed alcohol of soju and beer) as a cocktail amid the craze of Korean Wave.”

On my way back to the hotel, I stopped at a Japanese supermarket. Bottles of Hite Jinro fruit soju, which were displayed in the middle of the store, attracted my attention. Right next to them was a row of Korean-labeled soju produced by global liquor brands. In Vietnam alone, 170 types of soju from 27 brands are sold. Sminoff, famous for vodka, and Tiger Beer in Singapore also introduced "soju." Attention is focusing on whether Jinro, which is called "Soju" itself rather than "Korean Vodka," will stand tall in the global market beyond Korea.

※This article has undergone review by a professional translator after being translated by an AI translation tool.