Australian Wine Exporters Challenge French Counterparts in China
Australian wine exports to China have experienced a steady rise over the past few years, exhibiting strong competition with traditional wine suppliers like France. The exported wine market in China is sizeable, with a reported value of $2 billion in 2016. This amounted to 482 million litres of wine with Australian exporters holding 25% of this share compared to traditional wine makers like France holding 45%.
China’s affinity for Australian wine has been supported by a 40% year-on-year growth in terms of volume and does not look to be slowing down any time soon. In addition to this, the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement plans to see import tariffs set to be zero come 2019. This bolsters Australia’s ability and competitive positioning in the Chinese wine market, and as China eventually becomes the world’s largest consumer market, we could see Australia surpass France as a wine market leader.
China is projected to become the world’s largest importer by 2022, overtaking the United States as forecasted by the China International Capital Corporation (CICC). The wine market in China is showing rapid and diversified development, in part due to changing consumption habits. Wine is no longer considered a label of wealth but it has gradually become a genuine desire for personal consumption. This, combined with China’s trade outlook pairs to create many opportunities worthy of exploration for wine in Chinese space.
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