ABSTRACT： Data from China Customs tells that in 2018, imported wine market of China (including still wine, sparking and bulk wine) shrinked remarkably compared with 2017 in terms of importing value. Spain is the wine country dropped the most in China. Meanwhile Italy reached the forth position among the five wine countries.
From January to December 2018, French wine imports in the Chinese market were US$1,061.3 million, down 8.75% from US$1,125.6 million in 2017; Australian wine imports were US$7.02 trillion, down 3.51 from US$7.283 billion in 2017. %; Chilean wine imports amounted to 3.4355 trillion US dollars, an increase of 4.5% compared with 2017’s 328.77 million US dollars; Italian wine imports amounted to 1.5567 billion US dollars, compared with 2017’s 1.6136 billion US dollars, down 3.53%; Spanish wine imports are It was $15493 million, a decrease of 20.13% compared to $1.9398 billion in 2017.
According to data from the Italian Foreign Trade Commission, in the first three quarters of 2018, the import value of China’s five major importing countries, except Spain, showed a growth trend compared with the first three quarters of 2017. France’s first three quarters increased by 6.3%. Australia’s first three quarters increased by 18.87% year-on-year; Chile’s first three quarters increased by 22.34%; Italy’s first three quarters increased by 12.39%, only Spain’s first three quarters decreased by 10.3%. Combined with the overall data comparison of 2018, it can be found that China’s wine imports in the fourth quarter of 2018 showed a cliff-like downward trend.
The recession in the fourth quarter of 2018 was the main reason for the decline in annual import volume. Although Italian wine imports increased by 25.45% in the first half of 2018 (June-June), the growth rate slowed down significantly in the third quarter. Until the fourth quarter, the import volume showed a significant decline.
Since July 2018, China’s imported wine market has entered a period of very downturn. This coincides with the “2018 Mid-Autumn Festival peak season is not prosperous” in response to many importers. Why is this downturn? Italian wine network interviewed some Italian wine importers.
Wang Shaofan, general manager of Beijing Fucheng Jiutai, believes that this is caused by the uncertainty of economic development. In 2019, the imported wine market may shrink more obviously. At present, the daily wine consumption of ordinary people is still more than commercial wine consumption, so cheap imported wine, such as low-priced Chilean wine, is not normal. In China’s second- and third-tier cities and below, the price of Italian wine is still high, so the acceptance is not as high as Chile and Australian wine. At present, the wholesale price of the main products of mainstream Italian importers is above 40 yuan, and the low-priced products are less, mainly because the scale is still small and the profit is lost. In the current product configuration of most wine merchants in the market, Italian wine is generally not positioned as a volume product.
Generally, a low-priced wine is shipped in hundreds of cases. At present, Italian wines rarely see 300-500 boxes of products at the distributor level, and there are relatively few customers who have such demand for Italian wines, while Chile and Australia’s ultra-low-priced wines are relatively large. Many, of course, there are more low-priced wines in Chile and Australia than in Italy, and it is also related to the increasing promotion of these two countries in China. The Australian immigration policy will definitely affect the import of Australian wines, but the main purpose of immigration imports of Australian wine is to invest in capital preservation, coupled with uneven quality, the Australian wines they import can not enter the main channels of sales, a large number of hoarding in the warehouse .
Yan Guohui, CEO of the British Music Industry China Wine Group, believes that the external factors that caused the decline of the imported wine market in the fourth quarter of 2018 are mainly the impact of the Sino-US trade war and the instability of the RMB exchange rate. The internal factor is that many wine merchants’ Mid-Autumn Festival sales are not as expected, leading to inventory backlogs and more or less liquidity problems. Importers are not willing to purchase goods or reduce purchases.
Jacky, general manager of Guangzhou Lefu Wine Industry, believes that the main reason is that there are too many homogenized OEM products in the market. Many importers are overly optimistic about the budget and inventory in the first half of the year, which leads to unreasonable order schedule. In addition, the sales season in the second half of the year is late, when the inventory is in a hurry, the supply cannot be replenished, and the goods are still on the road.
Liu Gang, head of the northern region of Shanghai Huayin Trading Co., Ltd., believes that the decline in Italian wine imports in 2018 is mainly due to two major reasons. First, the Italian wine production dropped sharply in 2017, resulting in an overall increase in wine prices in 2018, plus the exchange rate of the euro against the RMB. The increase of more than 10% once further affected the growth of Italian wine imports.
Yang Jian, general manager of Weisaidis (Beijing) Network Technology Co., Ltd. believes that the economic form in the first half of this year is stronger than that in the second half of the year, so the import volume in the first three quarters performed well, but the wine merchants experienced a situation in which the Mid-Autumn season was not prosperous. After the fourth quarter’s purchase plan has been adjusted, some wine merchants are not optimistic about the market prospects of French wine in 2019.
Deng Feng, general manager of Beijing Mozhuang Wine Co., Ltd. believes that compared with French wine that has entered the decline channel because of excessive quality wine, the growth of Italian wine with strict quality control is very large, and the Australian wine is obviously unable to follow. 2019 will be the opening of the double king era: “The winner is the king, the left is the king.” Italian wine is currently stable in price system and the channel profits are guaranteed. The quality control of Italian wine is strict, and there is almost no ultra-low-priced wine spoiler below 1 Euro. The overall image of the country and quality is good. These two points are the outstanding advantages of Italian wine in the Chinese market.
