With Hong Kong absent of any major international wine and spirits fairs in the past three years, ProWine Singapore staged from September 5-8 in the lion city became the only major sourcing platform for southeast Asian countries and will be held from now on as an annual event instead of biennial trade fair.
The four-day fair ended on a high note, bringing together 230 high-quality exhibitors from across 27 countries and regions to meet with 8,500 visitors from around the world.
This represents a close to 20% increase in visitors compared to the last edition held in 2018, as Singapore acted fast to lift travel restrictions from covid to revive business.
Taking place over four days at the Singapore Expo alongside FHA – Food & Beverage, ProWine Singapore 2022 featured a broad representation of international wine and spirits labels, solutions and concepts for the region’s diverse consumer markets as well as specialized masterclasses and seminars by industry experts, wine educators and Masters of Wine. This year’s edition featured 23 speakers over 20 curated sessions that covered a broad spectrum of topics from the anticipated exploration of wines and spirits to post-pandemic strategies, Web3.0, NFTs and an exclusive cocktail launch.
According to Richard Hemming, Master of Wine and Head of Wine, Asia, at 67 Pall Mall, the show floor was buzzing throughout the four days. “Looking around there were people standing in every stand, talking, tasting, connecting with each other. Obviously, it is the first time in four years that we have really been able to do this properly – the show will build on this position and get even stronger in future years. It will be great for more exhibitors to consider exhibiting in these shows, even if they are already in the market, because it’s where the wine trade congregates to discuss what’s going to happen next.”
Ricardo Aleixo, Owner and Manager of Real Cave do Cedro from Portugal, said ProWine Singapore 2022 was “really impressive” and represented the best of all their participations since the first edition in 2016. “It was busy with potential buyers and lots of very good quality leads,” he added.
Meanwhile, Joan Anton Romero, Founder and General Manager of Barcelona-based Glass Canned Wines said that “All four days were intense, meeting distributors, retailers, hoteliers, and restauranteurs from Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Mongolia, Japan and China. We know that Singapore is the main hub to enter Asia; ProWine Singapore offered us the best opportunity to showcase our products in the region.” Glass Canned Wines offers local and top-quality wines, kept in a 21stcentury eco-friendly container that is resistant, recycled, and recyclable.
Overall, exhibitors reported an overwhelmingly positive turnout of highquality visitors and meaningful networking opportunities with regional importers, distributors, wholesalers, restaurateurs, and those representing the hotel and airline sectors, with trade visitors coming from Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines – countries that are ranked among the Top 10 emerging markets of choice by producers in an earlier ProWein Global Business Report. The internationality of ProWine Singapore 2022 where close to 30% of trade visitors came from overseas, further strengthened the relevance of the trade fair in bringing together quality buyers and decision-making visitors to conduct business at this must-attend regional platform.
“The crowd and excitement on the show floor and the value of face-to-face interactions and live tastings were clear. The feedback from exhibitors has been extremely positive – we are thrilled at the success of ProWine Singapore 2022, and the range of exhibitors proved the diversified development of wine and spirits in Southeast Asia, while the number of quality trade visitors was exceptional. Being the region’s first wine and spirits trade fair to return post-pandemic, it was so encouraging to see producers, distributors and retailers having the chance to reconnect, refresh their relationships, and gain business leads. A big thank you to all the exhibitors and visitors for their endorsement and support, and we look forward to welcoming them again in 2023,” said Gernot Ringling, Managing Director of Messe Düsseldorf Asia.
The sentiment was equally positive and optimistic on the spirits and liquor side of ProWine Singapore 2022. According to Anshika Agarwal, Director of The Nepal Distilleries Pvt. Ltd, “The response has been quite amazing. ProWine Singapore has been a great opportunity for us to introduce our spirits to people in Singapore, the UK, Australia, the USA and more. Our main purpose for attending this trade fair is to do market research and to better understand the Southeast Asian palette – and we received a great deal of feedback from people in the region.” Established in 1959 in the valley of Kathmandu, The Nepal Distilleries specialises in Himalayan rum Khukri, and is Nepal’s first distillery.
The next edition of ProWine Singapore which now runs on an annual cycle alongside FHA – Food & Beverage, will return to the Singapore Expo from 25 to 28 April 2023. By pivoting to an annual platform, this offers the best opportunity to cater to the business growth and demands of the industry.
