China’s stringent ‘Zero-Covid’ policy, as well as the ongoing harsh tariffs on some major exporters, have hindered the recovery of the country’s wine imports in 2021.
According to the latest figures released by China Association for Imports and Exports of Wine and Spirits (CAWS), among all categories of alcoholic beverages, imported wines’ market share slid further last year, down to 30.8% behind spirits and beers.
China wine imports saw a slight downturn trend in 2021, with its market share shrunk by 30.8% among all wines and spirits imports.
In 2021, China’s wine imports further slid by 7.4% to US$1.69 billion on a low comparing base of 2020, while the import volume recorded a moderate decrease of 1.4% to 420 million liters.
The decline in import value is a result of reduction in bottled wine imports. In 2021, bottled wine imports in China dropped by 8.7% to US$1.58 billion in value, due to the drastic decrease in wine imports from Australia after the anti-dumping tariffs. Only 300 million liters of bottled wine was imported last year, a 7.2% decrease from 2020.
On the other hand, bulk wine imports rose by 17.3% in value to US$100 million, while the import volume was up by 16.7% to 120 million liters.
Sparkling wine imports also saw a 57.91% growth in value to US$114 million. 11 million liters of sparkling wine was imported to China, a year-on-year increase of 13.5%.
Despite the overall downward trend, CAWS suggested China’s wine imports market is adapting to the “post Australian anti-dumping period”, as all major importing countries generally recorded a positive growth in imports, except for Australia.
However, there were also other challenges crippling China’s wine imports. While the country’s ‘Zero-Covid policy’ during the pandemic has already dampened on-trade sales, a new wave of consumer favouritism to domestic wines have further undermined the attractiveness of imported wines.
For now, here are the top 10 wine exporters to China in 2021.
Scroll through the pages below to read them all.
