NEWS
JAPAN’S KIRIN BREWERY SETS AMBITIOUS EXPORT TARGET FOR FUJI WHISKY
By Siulan Law Mathews DipWSET
25-4-2025
Source: Fuji Whisky
Japan’s Kirin Brewery is making significant strides in the global whisky market with its Fuji whisky brand.
The leading Japanese beer maker has set its sight carving out a larger share in the Japanese whisky market which has turned global in recent years.
Hideki Horiguchi, the president of Kirin Brewery, has disclosed an ambitious target of boosting its whisky sales abroad to around ¥3.5 billion (USD27 million) by 2030.
This figure is more than seven times higher than its 2022 overseas whisky sales.
In 2022, overseas sales of the Fuji brand - which contributed a large portion of Kirin's overseas whisky revenue - reached ¥450m, surpassing its domestic sales which stood at ¥340m.
Launched in Japan in 2020, Fuji whisky was made in Fuji Gotemba distillery located at the foot of Mount Fuji.
The distillery was established in 1973 as a joint venture between Kirin, Seagram and Chivas Brothers, though it is now solely operated by Kirin.
The location provides ideal conditions for whisky production, with a cool climate (average temperature of around 13°C), high humidity due to frequent mist, and access to pure water filtered from Mount Fuji's melted snow.
The distillery uses a combination of traditional Scottish pot stills for barley malt spirit and is also equipped with Canadian whiskey kettle stills and US Bourbon doubler stills, making it the only distillery outside North America to possess such a setup.
This allows it to produce three distinct styles of grain spirit using corn and sometimes rye.
Kirin began its overseas expansion of the Fuji brand in 2021, entering the US and French markets.
In 2022, it further expanded to Australia, China and Singapore. By 2030, the company anticipates that overseas sales will constitute the majority of the revenue from Fuji whisky.
(the writer can be contacted at: info@thewinechronicle.com)
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