China’s Wine Importer Exodus Accelerates, With Numbers Down More Than 30%

China’s wine importers are disappearing.

Industry estimates suggest their numbers have fallen by more than 30% over the past seven years, while some insiders believe the operating space of roughly 80% of China’s wine companies has been squeezed. Importers that once brought in hundreds of containers a year a year have stopped shipping altogether; others have abandoned wine for baijiu, food or entirely different industries.

There is no official tally of how many have left. But evidence from trade associations, exhibition organisers and wine merchants points to the same conclusion: China’s wine trade is undergoing a prolonged and increasingly unforgiving shakeout.

Importer Numbers Down More Than 30% in Seven Years

“Given the changes in supply and demand, there is no question that the number of wine importers has declined,” Wu Yunping, president of the Shenzhen Wine Industry Association, told Vino Joy News. “Based on what I know, the number has fallen by at least one-third since 2019, perhaps close to half. And it will continue to fall.”

“Based on what I know, the number has fallen by at least one-third since 2019, perhaps close to half. And it will continue to fall.”

Wu Yunping, president of the Shenzhen Wine Industry Association

Jia Yanping, co-founder of Interwine China, a wine exhibition organizer, has observed a similar trend. She estimates that the number of wine importers has declined by around 30% in recent years. Some have moved into other categories, including food and baijiu, while others have left the alcoholic drinks industry altogether.

Founded in 2005, Interwine is one of China’s longest-running specialist wine and spirits exhibitions. Its flagship Guangzhou fair has now reached its 37th edition and has long been held twice a year. Interwine and its related roadshows have also expanded to cities including Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Macao.

Having worked closely with importers for more than two decades, Jia has watched the industry’s contraction at close range.

“Companies that used to import more than 400 containers a year are not bringing in a single one today,” she said.

Why did they stop?

“They simply couldn’t sell the wine.”

As for why the wine no longer sells, Jia said there is no single explanation.

Triple Pressure: Weak Demand, Low-Price Competition and Shrinking Margins

Official data released as early as 2019 lends weight to these assessments.

According to the wine and spirits division of the China Chamber of Commerce of Import and Export of Foodstuffs, Native Produce and Animal By-products, 6,411 Chinese companies imported bottled wine in 2018. By the first five months of 2019, that number had already fallen by 35% to 4,175.

Wu Yunping of Shenzhen Wine Industry Association attributes the decline to three main factors.

First, overall demand for wine is weaker than it once was.

“People are not drinking as much wine as before,” he said. “Baijiu and beer have taken some of its market share, while younger consumers have yet to develop a habit of drinking wine.”

Second, low-priced, domestically bottled wines are squeezing parts of the market for wines bottled at origin.

Wu pointed to the large volumes of bulk wine imported into regions such as Shandong and bottled locally. Their lower prices allow them to compete aggressively with bottled imports.

Chen Hui, general manager of Triumph (Tianjin) International Supply Chain Co., Ltd., has witnessed the same shift. A decade ago, the company imported large volumes of French table wine. It has since steadily reduced its exposure to the segment.

Chen said the market for table wines bottled at origin has come under significant pressure from imported bulk wines bottled domestically, particularly in Shandong.

Third, wine prices have become far more transparent, eroding the high margins on which many importers once depended.

“In the past, wine could be priced almost arbitrarily. A bottle costing €2 might sell for several hundred yuan,” Wu said. “Now the market is becoming more rational. Wine sells for what it is worth, and there are no longer exceptionally large margins to support a company’s operations. That has pushed some businesses out.”

A Maturing Market Pushes Some Importers Out

In one sense, shrinking margins are not merely a symptom of an industry under pressure. They also suggest that China’s wine market is moving beyond the information asymmetry and steep markups of the past.

The decline in importer numbers, therefore, does not necessarily point solely to contraction. Some exits may be a consequence of the market becoming more mature.

As consumers have grown more knowledgeable about wine, business models built on steep markups, information gaps and concept-driven marketing have become increasingly difficult to sustain. When the market could no longer deliver the margins these companies once enjoyed, some chose to leave.

Zhang Jiarong, general manager of Rongpu Wine in Zengcheng on the outskirts of Guangzhou, saw the rise and fall of one such business firsthand.

When Zhang first entered the wine trade, his supplier was the importer of a high-markup Australian OEM brand known as “Australia 707 Wine.” One of Zhang’s relatives in Australia had introduced the brand to Zengcheng.

Zhang became a distributor in 2011 and opened a wine club built around the idea of “direct supply from Australia.” The concept quickly gained traction.

Several wines in the Australia 707 portfolio carried substantial markups. Entry-level wines from broad regional appellations sold for more than RMB 100 (US$14.88), as did its alcohol-free wines, while some products were priced above RMB 700 (US$104.15).

At the time, wine was widely regarded as fashionable, consumer knowledge remained limited and the market was expanding rapidly. Under those conditions, such a pricing model could thrive.

But restrictions on government-funded spending and entertainment dealt the market a heavy blow in 2013. Competition subsequently intensified as more wine distributors entered the Zengcheng market, while consumers became increasingly sophisticated. Products carrying steep markups gradually lost their appeal.

Zhang remains in the wine trade today, but has shifted to lower-margin products offering stronger value for money. The importer that once supplied him, however, has long since left the industry.

According to Zhang, his relative concluded that the threshold for making money from wine had become too high, closed the company and moved into another sector.

The disappearance of companies like this is one sign of the market’s transition from loosely managed expansion to greater maturity.

Jia shares that view. As the market evolves, she believes the aggressive, high-spending business models of the past are becoming increasingly difficult to sustain.

Yet she still sees considerable potential in emerging consumption occasions.

“Wine consumption occasions still exist, including drinking for personal enjoyment, white wine and more individualised consumption,” Jia said. “Importers need to align themselves with international markets and shift into new channels, including the on-trade, direct-to-consumer sales, e-commerce and the tourism economy.”

In her view, the era of windfall profits in China’s wine trade is coming to an end. As in more developed markets, prices will become increasingly transparent. Importers can no longer rely on high margins and should be particularly cautious about developing OEM wines.

Stopping Imports Does Not Mean Leaving Wine

Not every company that has stopped importing has left the wine business. Some have instead shifted to buying stock already available in China.

Medoc 1855 Trading Co., Ltd. in Tangshan is one such company. The longstanding wine merchant specialised in imports before 2014, bringing in several containers a year. It later changed course and gradually stopped importing on its own.

General manager Dong Huaicheng acknowledged that the company had made mistakes in both product selection and decision-making.

“The product did not sell very well,” he said. “Later, as the market became more conservative, we stopped taking on the greater risks involved in importing independently.”

Dong believes choosing the right product – and ensuring it remains competitive – is critical. The company now pools orders with several other wine merchants to purchase stock already held in China.

“The risk is much lower,” Dong said. “It is easier to inspect the goods in advance. And because everyone involved is an industry professional, products selected through collective judgment are much less likely to miss the market.”

“In the past, imported products were controlled by only a few people. Their assessments could easily be wrong, leaving the company stuck with unsold inventory.”

Not Every Wine Company Should Be an Importer

Fang Yi, general manager of Changsha-based Puyi Fine Wine, also believes that independent importing is not suited to every wine company.

Puyi Fine Wine is an established fine-wine merchant in Central China’s Changsha. It once imported some sweet wines directly, but today sources almost all its products from stock already in China, apart from a small volume purchased directly from Australia.

“The advantage of importing independently is that you can avoid excessive importer markups, as well as products that are available everywhere and whose prices have become too transparent,” Fang said.

“But our business requires a broad and varied range, while the quantity we need of each SKU is relatively small. That makes independent importing impractical. Domestic importers allow us to buy multiple products at once, each in limited quantities.”

Fang also supplies a considerable number of restaurants. These clients want fine wines with established brand recognition, but such labels often already have exclusive representation in China. Because he cannot easily source them directly, he still needs to work with importers.

A Return to Rationality

For Fang, the decline in importer numbers also reflects a more rational approach to doing business.

“Many wine merchants simply do not have the distribution capacity to be importers,” he said. “That is why so many have brought in wines they could not sell.”

The current downturn has only widened the divide.

Dong said tighter restrictions on alcohol consumption, combined with a weak economy, were enough to overwhelm many importers.

Although he acknowledges that the decline in importer numbers reflects a degree of necessary market clearing, he believes it has done more harm than good.

“The biggest problem is that the market is simply not large enough,” Dong said. “Since 2019, the operating space of 80% of wine companies has been squeezed. That has also hurt some good products. A wine may sell very well in one region but perform poorly nationwide, prompting the importer to discontinue it.”

The contraction has also disrupted supply for domestic merchants.

“The products we purchase collectively are often not available on a consistent basis, which affects our sales,” Dong said.

The real significance of China’s shrinking importer base may lie not simply in who has left, but in how the market is deciding who deserves to remain.

Business models built on information gaps, scarce supply and high margins are receding. Companies that understand consumers and can develop new sales channels stand a better chance of surviving.

For China’s wine industry, this is both a shakeout and a repricing. As the market can no longer rely on rapid growth, the focus of competition is shifting—from securing supply and undercutting rivals to product selection, channel development and operational strength.