The Chinese New Year period is key for drinks sales in the Far East, with the pre-festival sell-in period skewing quarterly sales and profit figures for spirits giants like Diageo, Pernod Ricard and Rémy Cointreau.

Starting this year on February 1 and heralding the Year of the Tiger, the two-week Chinese New Year (Spring Festival) holiday period is the prime time for feasting and gifting, with spirits especially heading up purchasing lists.

Alibaba (China’s equivalent of Amazon) reckons that 30% of its alcohol sales bought as gifts are associated with the festival. Almost exclusively they are in the premium price brackets.

Yet while the global players are all making big efforts to grab growing shares of the market in China (which is Pernod Ricard’s second largest and is also critical to the fortunes of Rémy Cointreau), it remains dominated by baijiu, which accounts for 96% of alcohol consumption in the People’s Republic.

Latest figures show that by contrast Cognac holds a 3% market share and scotch whisky just 1%. Other spirits such as gin, Tequila or vodka hardly register in the statistics.

Baijiu is considered the national spirit in China, made by fermenting sorghum or rice. It has been part of the cultural repertoire since the Ming Dynasty which began in the mid 14th century.

Statista estimates the sales of baijiu in 2020 approached $92 billion but were held back by the coronavirus pandemic, which impacted uptake during the Chinese New Year celebrations. It is probable that today baijiu is a $100bn market.

By comparison, last year the global market for all whiskies was around $80bn while that for Scotch whisky is put at about £5.5bn ($7.5bn).

But baijiu is an all-encompassing category for locally produced alcohol which can cost just a few pence for a weak, beer-like beverage while a bottle of the highest grade of prestigious Wuliangve retails for $3,375.

A 1935 vintage bottle of Moutai sold for £1.2 million at auction, according to BaijiuBlog.com.

Yet while demand has soared over the past few years, output shrank from 13 billion litres in 2016 to 7.6 billion in 2019 according to Satatista. Despite lockdown restrictions in 2020, revenue from the local market still increased by $3.5 billion in the year compared to 2019 as producers raised their prices and margins.

In response, the share prices of the main players have shot up. In autumn 2018, Kweichow Moutai, the largest, was valued at just more than $100 billion; at the start of this year it was priced at a little over $400 billion. By comparison Diageo is capitalised at $145 billion.