The Chinese government on Wednesday awarded 29 renowned breweries including Tsingtao, Maotai, Wuliangye and Yanjing with quality authentication certificates.

This is the first time for the Ministry of Commerce and China's Certification and Accreditation Administration to issue such certificates to Chinese breweries.

China's beer output and sales volume now rank first in the world, and its wine and yellow wine market has been growing at an annual rate of more than 10 percent.

In the first 11 months of 2005, the total alcoholic drink output of Chinese enterprises with yearly sales exceeding 5 million yuan (US$625,000) reached 38 million kiloliters, up 10 percent year on year, with profit of 12 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion), up 31 percent.

The falsifying and unqualified wine products, however, are still rampant in Chinese market. In September 2005, the Ministry of Commerce and Certification and Accreditation Administration issued the regulation on wine's quality authentication.

(Xinhua News Agency January 19, 2006)