Following a central government ban on the serving of premium liquors at official banquets, producers of luxury brands experienced a price and sales slump in the first half of the year.

After spending half a year revising marketing strategies, top brands like Moutai recently reported a recovery in terms of sales and prices.

Because Moutai is representative of Guizhou's liquor industry, insiders believe its performance is crucial to market stabilization as a whole.

Ding Chengying, a Beijing businesswoman, said she planned to buy some Moutai two months ago, when the price was 900 yuan a bottle. But she declined to do so, thinking the price would fall even further.

However, the retail price rapidly rebounded to 1,500 yuan just two months later in Beijing.

"I could have earned more money if I had bought it earlier," Ding said.

The price of Moutai also rose in other cities in the country.

According to an announcement by Kweichow Moutai, it achieved sales revenue totaling 17.9 billion yuan and a pre-tax profit of 12 billion yuan in the first six months of this year. Its first-half revenue in 2012 was 17.8 billion yuan.

The company attributed its recovery to new, innovative marketing methods.

For instance, Kweichow Moutai recently sold 200 tons of liquor through Guizhou Liquor Exchange, a local futures market.

Tong Xun, an analyst at Shenyin and Wanguo Securities said that Moutai liquor is a product with good cost performance at this moment for investors who want to invest in the futures market.

"The prices of high-end liquor have gradually returned to a reasonable level after a half-year period profound adjustment," he said.

He added that the arrival of the Mid-Autumn Festival and the National Day is expected to help high-end liquors overcome market shock, and sales are expected to recover.

In addition, Guizhou's lower-tier liquor brands also reported satisfactory performance in the past months.

For instance, Jinsha Liquor reported that its sales revenue totaled 950 million yuan in the first half, putting its annual goal of 2 billion yuan within striking distance.

Statistics from Guizhou Economic and Information Commission show that in the first half of the year, Guizhou's liquor output amounted to 152,700 kiloliters, an increase of 19.5 percent year-on-year. Total revenues hit 22.65 billion yuan, increasing 7 percent.

lijun@chinadaily.com.cn