"China Will Rock Our Wine World" But Needs Time

Jun 2, 2014

(Wine-Searcher) - China's makers of Merlot and Chardonnay have found success at home, but have struggled to convince drinkers overseas that their wines can compete with offerings from more established wine nations.

Booths for Chinese wine producers displaying bottles of red, white and sparkling wines drew curious crowds at last week's Vinexpo Asia Pacific in Hong Kong.

But traders at the fair, the largest wine and spirits event of its kind in Asia, say the domestic popularity of the wines does not translate to success in overseas markets.

"The appetite for 'made in China' wines outside China is very limited. If you think about wine, China would not be the place that comes to mind," Judy Chan, one of a handful of China-based wineries exhibiting at the three-day trade show, told AFP.

"We really only sell domestically," said Chan, who works for Grace Vineyard that operates an estate of some 740 acres in the northern inland provinces of Shanxi and Ningxia.

Like other exhibitors at the event, Chan believes that a spate of Chinese food safety scandals discourage international buyers from purchasing the country's wines. "We have all these problems with our food," she said.

Public concern about food safety is high in China. In 2008, six babies died and 300,000 others fell ill in a massive scandal involving contaminated milk powder.

"We don't spend too much effort on the overseas market. Their market is mature, we are at an embryonic stage," said Lu Wen, production director for China's Dynasty Fine Wines Group.

"There may be demand from the overseas Chinese population, we just can't really reach the masses abroad," he said, explaining that 99 percent of the firm's wines are sold domestically.

But he added the domestic market is "big enough" for the company to grow, with wines priced below 40 yuan ($6.40) – compared to the 50 percent duties levied on foreign imports – play a key role in local wine's domination in China. More than 80 percent of all wine consumed in China is made domestically, according to Vinexpo.


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