BEIJING -- China's alcohol imports jumped 58.1 percent from a year earlier to $2.4 billion last year, according to the country's commerce ministry.

In 2011, the country imported 500,000 kiloliters of alcohol, an increase of 30.3 percent year-on-year, Vice-Minister of Commerce Jiang Zengwei said at a press conference about an international alcoholic beverage expo that runs from Aug 9 to 13 in southwest China's Guizhou province.

The country's alcohol exports increased 51.3 percent to $500 million last year, while it sold 270,000 kiloliters of alcohol to overseas markets, Jiang said.

Jiang said the country's major alcohol producers saw their output value expand 33.2 percent from a year earlier to 670 billion yuan ($106 billion) in 2011.

The country currently has 2.17 million registered alcohol businesses, 1.96 million of which are retailers, according to Jiang.