The zodiac element of the Year of the Horse adds color to beer exports

As the end of the year approaches, in the export storage area of Qingdao Beer, boxes of beer with elements of the Year of the Horse and the Chinese zodiac are neatly stacked. The design of the bottle body, which integrates Chinese knots and auspicious cloud patterns, showcases the oriental charm. It will soon be shipped to various parts of the world through Qingdao Port. As a beer that carries Chinese culture and brand strength, the Year of the Horse beer has successfully gone global under the full protection of customs intelligent supervision and facilitation measures. This "Chinese flavor" full of malt aroma has been "fragrant" in more than 40 countries and regions.

The remote inspection and 'cloud issuance' policy of customs has completely solved the problem of time efficiency in exporting Zodiac beer, "said Wu Wei, assistant general manager of Qingdao Beer Co., Ltd.'s overseas business headquarters. As a seasonal specialty product, Zodiac beer has extremely high requirements for customs clearance time, and overseas orders are scattered and shipping schedules are dense. In the past, traditional on-site inspections required a 48 hour buffer period. Now, through mobile video connections and in cooperation with customs, the inspection process of goods packaging and label verification can be completed and released within 30 minutes. With the addition of the "cloud issuance" mode for inspection and quarantine certificates, the visa duration has been shortened from 1-2 days to less than 10 minutes. Thanks to these convenient measures, the export orders of beer born in the Year of the Horse have increased by over 12% year-on-year this year.

To support the export of specialty foods, we must not only maintain the bottom line of quality and safety, but also open up efficient customs clearance channels, "said Yuan Tao, Deputy Director of Qingdao Dagang Customs. The customs has taken the construction of a smart customs as the starting point and created a" one enterprise, one policy "regulatory service plan tailored to the characteristics of beer exports. On the one hand, we will deploy in advance to provide policy interpretation and business guidance for enterprises, and carry out compliance guidance from qualifications to export processes, from raw material quality to production safety, from intellectual property to label identification, to ensure the smooth passage of exported food under the full chain supervision of customs; On the other hand, we will ensure smooth export channels for high-quality food products during the Chinese New Year, optimize inspection processes, conduct scheduled inspections, implement "one enterprise, one policy" to quickly respond to enterprise needs, and achieve instant reporting, inspection, and release, fully guaranteeing the smooth operation of foreign trade exports before and after the Spring Festival.

Wu Wei added, "The precise assistance of customs runs through the entire production and export chain. For key links such as packaging design and ingredient labeling of Chinese New Year beer, customs provides' one-on-one 'compliance guidance, interprets food labeling standards and technical trade measures in different countries in advance, helps enterprises avoid overseas market risks, and makes products more competitive in the international market." Currently, Chinese New Year beer has successfully entered multiple mainstream overseas supermarkets and channels, becoming an important carrier for spreading Chinese zodiac culture.

According to statistics, from November 2025 to January 6, 2026, Qingdao Customs has supervised and released the export of alcoholic beverages worth 117 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.5%.

The cross-border journey of bottles of Chinese zodiac beer from Qingdao Port in Shandong Province to major ports around the world has witnessed the "two-way rush" of smart customs and foreign trade enterprises. Next, Qingdao Customs will continue to deepen the reform of customs clearance facilitation, optimize the local inspection mode, strengthen precise policy promotion, and enable more characteristic products carrying Chinese culture to efficiently go global, injecting strong momentum into the high-quality development of foreign trade. (Wang Xiaolong, Chen Xiao, Ni Peng/Wen)