(Reuters) - Hong Kong's wine imports have remained strong even as global economic uncertainty cuts demand for luxury goods, underscoring the city's credentials as a preeminent wine hub buoyed by strong demand from mainland Chinese buyers. Even with Europe's debt crisis and continued fragility in the U.S. economy continuing to weigh on consumer demand, Hong Kong's wine trade has grown steadily, with imports surging 57 percent in the first nine months, year on year, to $940 million. Since the teeming former British colony scrapped wine duties from 40 percent to zero in 2008, wine imports have almost quadrupled to $898 million in 2010 with the mushrooming of wine merchants, auctioneers, distributors and storage cellars.