by Chantal Chi
Recently released statistics on the Chinese wine market reveal that the Middle Kingdom imported the equivalent of12m 9-Litre cases of bulk and 4.7m cases of bottled wine in 2007. Whereas bottled imports more than doubled
(+109%) over 2006, bulk was up only 11%.
Although France continues to lead in bottle sales (see our news from the 29th of January), Chile is the bulk wine champion, with a 70% market share. Since little of this bulk is bottled in China as Chilean wine, experts teasingly joke that to know much about a vintage in China, you need to read the vintage report on Chilean wine.
While Chilean wines enjoyed 133% growth over 2006, Australian and Spanish bulk exports were down 27% and 66% respectively. In spite of their lower price per litre ($0.47), Spanish bulk wines still ranked only third behind Chile and Australia.
France, the number one for imported bottle wine, also sold 4.7m litres of bulk to China. With a 53% of increase over the previous year, France now also ranks fourth among bulk wine suppliers to China.
