Fake Budweiser factory busted in China

An underground factory in China’s southern Guangdong province has been busted for producing fake cans of Budweiser beer after a video showing an unsanitary production line went viral.

According to local authorities, the underground workshop was making more than 600,000 crates of beer every month as reported by Chinese news website Sohu.com.

In the video uploaded to Shanghaiist, workers were seen refilling empty cans of Budweiser in a clear, white container box that’s filled with beer, then the beer cans were passed onto a conveyor belt for canning. A man in the video was heard saying, “The machine operates very fast” while commenting on the bottling machine.

It’s unknown where these counterfeit beer cans were sold, but previous busts indicate that the beers were mostly bought by night clubs, bars and KTV parlours. A 330ml can of Budweiser normally sells for RMB 7 (US$1.02).

The company’s office in China has issued a statement confirming the beers shown in the videos are produced illegally, and said it has filed a report with the police, according to Hunan TV station.

China is the world’s largest beer market and the craft beer sector is experiencing particularly fast growth, thanks to its lower prices compared with premium beer. AB InBev, owner of Budweiser, is ramping up efforts to dominate the craft beer market in China. The company takes up 15.7% of the market share in 2015, according to Fortune, behind China Resources and domestic beer brand Tsingtao.