No. 2 France
Import value: US$350.9 million
Import volume: 69.8 million litres
This year one of the most important changes in China’s imported wine market is that France has conceded to Australia after years of dominance in China’s imported wine market.
Its overall import value dropped by 38.88% from January to June to US$350.9 million, while its volume decreased by 27.01% to 69.8 million litres compared with the same period last year.
Bordeaux exports to China in particular saw sharp decreases, with value dropping by more than 30% last year, as vino-joy.com reported earlier.
French wine’s market share also shrank to 28.56% in China, a sharp contrast to a couple of years ago when its market share was close to 40%.
Overall interest for Bordeaux En Primeur in China waned quickly, as importers find increasingly hard to make profits from the Bordeaux future campaign when back vintages are sometimes cheaper.
However, Bordeaux Wine Council is ramping up campaigns to promote everyday drinking Bordeaux wines in mainland China and Hong Kong. Results are yet to be seen in import figures.
