The Guizhou Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision recently held a news conference in which it proudly announced the continued growth of the province’s baijiu industry, Sept 7.

Guizhou has a rich distilling tradition and its gains run contrary to the national trend of slowing sales. Despite only comprising 3.3 percent of the nation’s output volume, the province reaped 32.5 percent of national profit.

This can be explained by the number of leading high-end brands operating in the Southwest province including Moutai, Xi Jiu, and An Jiu. There are currently 27 baijiu distilleries in the province, mainly located in and around the city of Huairen, and they tend to use high quality grains. Sorghum and wheat fields cover around 750 square kilometers of the province.

One key to this steady growth has been the implementation of standardized management in distilleries that has striven to guarantee the quality of alcoholic production. A further province-wide strategy to emphasize the prestige of regional brands to a national audience has helped to keep Guizhou’s baijiu sales ticking along.

Since 2011 the province has issued dozens of standardization tests for the production of baijiu, for example, Guizhou’s standard for Maotai, one of many baijiu flavor classes, is recognized and applied nationally by producers. Guizhou’s baijiu distilleries also seek excellence through funding third-party examinations and have built several advanced laboratories to gauge production quality.

Baijiu is a colorless Chinese liquor with an estimated 5000 year history. It is typically distilled from fermented sorghum and wheat and has an alcohol content ranging from 40-60 percent.