Imported liquors are displayed on a shelf at a large supermarket in Seoul, April 2022. Newsis

Various imported liquors here are raising their prices due to the strengthening of the U.S. dollar against the Korean won as well as logistics costs, which are forcing local importers to raise the prices of their products, according to industry officials, Thursday.

One of the liquors is Yantai Kaoliang, a strong distilled liquor from Yantai in China's Shandong Province. Korean importer In Chang Trade, in Daejeon, which imports 70 percent of the product to Korea, said it will raise prices for both regular consumers and business consumers starting July 1.

The company said a bottle of 125 milliliter (ml) Yantai Kaoliang will rise by 5.2 percent, a 250 ml bottle will go up 6.3 percent and a 500 ml bottle will see a 5.8 percent increase. Additionally, the more high-end lineup of Yantai Kaoliang products, imported by the company, will also undergo price rises from 1.7 to 4.7 percent.

It is the first time In Chang has raised prices for imported Yanai Kaoliang liquor since July 2022 when the products saw their prices increase by 5 to 6 percent.

In Chang said that the strong won-dollar exchange rate that peaked at 1,400 won ($1.02) on April 16, which has been maintaining its high value, has forced it to raise prices.

"Not just the exchange rate but logistics and power usage costs all rose to the point we can no longer manage our operation," a company official said. "It was inevitable. So we drove up the prices before it's too late."

Other imported liquor with recent price hikes include Wild Turkey, Johnnie Walker, Jim Beam, Bowmore, Hibiki, Yamazaki and Woodford Reserve.

Trans Beverages, which imports Wild Turkey from the United States, said it will raise its price by 5 percent next month. Diageo Korea, which imports Johnnie Walker from Scotland, raised its price by 9 percent last December.

Beam Suntory Korea, which imports Hibiki, Yamazaki, Jim Beam and Bowmore, raised prices for the whiskeys for business establishments from 5 to 18 percent in January. Brown-Forman Korea also raised the price of its American bourbon import Woodford Reserve by 13.1 percent.

The price hikes for liquor imports are part of the country's market price shift for products whose supply chains are not entirely domestic and thereby impacted by the high exchange rate. Lotte Wellfood, seeing how cocoa's value was soaring to a record level of over $10,000 per ton, said it will raise prices for all of its food products — made with the ingredient — by an average of 12 percent starting next month. The Korean government requested the company to delay the move and the firm said it will raise the prices in June.

The country's food and drink prices have been on a steep rise for the past few months, most drastically in relation to fresh fruit and vegetables, due to rising costs in logistics and other general business expenditures.