The Chinese wine buyers who don’t drink it are bad news for Australian producers but good news for Australian drinkers.
A fascinating insight in to the Chinese wine market was provided recently by Axios.
The chart above shows how Chinese wine consumption last year totaled just 10.5m hectoliters – the lowest number since 1997, when China’s population was 200 million smaller.
And the reason for the steady decline in consumption?
Explains Axios:
[See also Wine Prices are Up and Consumption is Down]
“In most of the world, wine sales are overwhelmingly to people who want to drink the stuff. That’s not the case in China, where only about 2.5% of adults drink wine at least once a month. Instead, most wine is bought by people who don’t intend to drink it. Instead, they give it away as gifts, during festivals like Chinese New Year, the Mid-Autumn Festival, or Singles Day. The pandemic caused massive disruption to Chinese gift-giving, as wine fell out of favor. Perhaps people realized the recipients weren’t drinking their gifts.”
So what are the likely consequences?
“Until 2013, China was considered the inevitable home of the future wine market. That now looks much less likely. … so far there’s no indication that China’s population is going to become a global force in the wine world.”
That analysis suggests that even a removal of China’s penalty tariffs on Ausralian wine will not be a panacea for the local industry. But he Chinese wine buyers who don’t drink it ensure that the surplus of good quality will continue to the benefit of Australian consumers.
