Australian wineries forge new routes to booming Chinese markets
Finding new routes to market that cut out the “middle man” are emerging as the latest trend in the rise and rise of Australian wine sales in China.
China last year overtook the United States to become the biggest buyer of Australian wine following a 40 per cent growth in sales for 2016. Exports of wine to mainland China rose from AU$370 million in 2015 to $520 million in 2016.
Barossa Valley winery Seppeltsfield will open a new wine chateau in China on Saturday (May 13) in a joint venture with Minquan Jiuding Wine Company Ltd. It is the first Chinese chateau to have a part ownership stake by an Australian winemaker. The South Australian winery has a 37 per cent stake in the AU$75 million project.
The news comes as Chinese online retailer YesMyWine takes a 15 per cent share in major wine company Australian Vintage Limited.
The Seppeltsfield investment, to be known as Chateau Seppeltsfield Minquan, has been under construction for three years in the province of Henan, which is about three hours by high-speed rail from Beijing and Shanghai. It is also just an hour’s drive east of Henan’s capital Zhengzhou, a city of almost 10 million people.
The chateau will sell Seppeltsfield and Minquan Jiuding wine and bottle bulk wine sent from South Australia. It is also aimed at China’s burgeoning wine tourism sector and will be used to market Seppeltsfield in the Barossa Valley to Chinese tourists.
Senior Research Scientist at the Ehrenberg Bass Institute for Marketing Science Dr Justin Cohen spends several months a year in China working on projects, some funded by Wine Australia and others to more broadly understand retail and media in a Chinese context.
He said investing in an area well away from China’s major tier 1 cities presented an opportunity to introduce more people to Australian wine for the first time.
“When you think about population there may well be more than enough people within Henan to build a strong brand in the local market – China is not the kind of country where you can say ‘I’m going to be across the entire country unless you’re Coca-Cola’,” Dr Cohen said.
“This is a very exciting and ambitious project and I think it could do wonders in helping build the awareness of Australian wine in parts of China that have not had much investment previously from a market development standpoint.
Read more in The Lead.
