Date of update: 25/10/2023 14:55 Date of publication: 25/10/2023 14:01
A worker has been filmed urinating in a container at a brewery in China PHOTO: Weibo
Restaurants and consumers in South Korea no longer want to hear about the Chinese beer Tsingtao, which is very popular in the country, after seeing a video of a factory worker urinating into a tank of ingredients, Korean media say.
The clip, which was posted last Thursday and has gone viral across Asia and beyond, shows a man in overalls and a helmet scaling the wall of a container to relieve himself in its contents.
Tsingtao, China’s second largest beer producer and a major exporter – beer being important even in Romania – announced that it had notified the police after learning about the video. “Our company attaches great importance to the video that was filmed at factory number 3 on October 19“, the brewer said in a statement.
“Currently, the batch of malt in question has been completely sealed. The company continues to strengthen its management procedures and ensure product quality”it is also said in this release.
Authorities in Pingdu, the city in Shandong province where Factory No. 3 is located, said they had launched an investigation into the incident. Chinese media quoted a source at Tsingtao as saying that the worker and the person who filmed the video are not employees of the factory and work for a partner company.
The clip caused extremely strong reactions.
South Korea’s JoongAng Daily reports that many restaurants, even those serving Chinese food, have requested refunds for shipments of Tsingtao beer, but the South Korean importer has rejected the requests, according to The Guardian.
„I asked if we could get a refund for the Tsingtao beer I already bought, but the importer’s rep said it wasn’t possible“, an employee of a Chinese restaurant in Seoul told JoongAng Daily.
The employee said that no customers were ordering Tsingtao beer, which had been the preferred variety until now.
On social media, the Chinese jumped to the brewery’s defense. “I suggest that the company take this man to court and make him pay damages”one commenter wrote on Weibo. “I will always support our famous brands!”said another.
But there were also many who showed no understanding at all. “I’ve always said this beer is like horse pee. It looks like I was wrong”one user also wrote on Weibo.
Declining South Korean sales would be a big problem for Tsingtao, which was South Korea’s most consumed import beer brand in the first half of 2023. China is South Korea’s second largest beer exporter , after Japan.
Bere Tsingtao PHOTO: Profimedia Images
The JoongAng daily said that not all restaurants were affected by the video’s appearance and quoted the owner of another restaurant in Seoul as saying that beer sales were not affected over the weekend.
But the same newspaper says that sales of beer in stores have fallen. Thus, sales of Tsingtao at one of the well-known supermarket chains fell by 26.2% compared to the previous week.
Other convenience stores saw even bigger sales declines, while other imported beers such as Budweiser and Stella Artois are now selling much better.
BK, the company that imports Tsingtao to South Korea, has tried to reassure consumers and ease their fears that they could be drinking contaminated beer. BK said that Tsingtao produces in separate facilities for domestic and foreign markets and that the factory in the video only produces beer for the Chinese market.
Editor :
D.C.
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2023-10-25 11:01:44
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