Imported Wine, Bright Future
Currently, domestic wine is still playing a leading role in the market, and the sales of wine from European/American are next to domestic famous brands. As wine in China grows more popular and tariffs' reduction, the future of imported wine will be considerable. Over the last decade, China wine market of wine in China has been growing rapidly and has becomes one of the biggest wine marketsin Asia. Four biggest wine brands like Changyu, Great Wall, Dynasty and Weilong account for vast majority of China winemarket, on the other hand, more and more imported wine brands appear on the market, thus, it is flooded with wine of different countries, brands, grape variety, quality.
In recent years, many imported wine brands rushed into China, yet they haven't draw a large number of customers , and their position and attraction haven't established.Compared with the four well-know domestic brands, imported wine still has a long way to go.
The wine has a long history in Europe, but in China the wine market is still immature, on the other hand, it means tremendous potential.
As the market is immature, the quality of the products, the wine culture and even the drinking manner can bring a great change to the market. Due to the culture and historical differences between east and west, along with other reasons, wine producer of France, Italy, and Spain etc, haven't clear mind of Chinese consumptive conception, customs and the marketing etc, don't know China market well and analyze consumers effectively , thus leads to a series problems on wine variety, price, selling channel etc, and make the marketing activies rather struggling.
As a major alcohol consuming country,China's consumption of liquor and beer both list the first in the world, but the consumption of wine lags behind. China has great potential of wine. China yearly output of wine is 5,000,000 hectolitres compared with the world's 270,000,000 hectolitres , and China's per capita wine consumption is less than 0.3 liter compared with the world's 7 liters.
2006-2007 China wine market analysis and investment consulting report shows, China wine output increases from 2,718,000 hectolitres in 1989 to 4,000,000 hectolitres in 2004. In the 17 years before 2006 ，the annual increase rate was 4.9%. In past 5 years the annual increase rate already exceeds 15% , at this rate ,China yearly output of wine will reach 8,000,000 hectolitres in 2010. In the coming several years, China wine market will be more than doubles.
With the development of China economy，the consumption of wine in China rise sharply, leading to great demand of wine. "We drink liquor when we only have enough food on table, drink beer when we reach are well-off , and drink wine when we are rich."Only the demand of wine grows with income, it is closely related to the high income of the consumer ,the image of elegance and lower alcohol content of wine.
Wine manufacture and marketing system is still unmature in China. Big domestic wine brands cover the market with low-grade wine,only a few wine producera like Changyu are producing chateau wine at present .On the other hand, China still lack wine culture and further education to consumer and make them learn to better know and appreciate wine is essential, which is just the advantage of imported wine.
The significant reductions of tariff rates provided a great advantage for imported wine. Since China became a member of WTO, the tariff is reduced from 65% to 17% ,China wine don't have much price advantages compared with imported wine.
The labor costs are low in China comparatively. Foreign wine companies may get support from the government if they provide more employment opportunity and stimulate local economic development, these are favorable for imported wine to improve their the competitiveness in China market.