Lodi looks to China for wine trade boost

LODI - Strengthening trade and tourism ties to China could receive a big boost in coming weeks as area business, wine industry and visitor officials look to host a trade delegation from the rapidly developing Asian giant and plan to establish a trade presence in Shanghai.

The effort could pay off in increased exports of San Joaquin County wine and other agricultural products to China, groups of Chinese tourists regularly putting the Lodi wine country on their itineraries or Chinese trading companies setting up shop in the area.

Pat Patrick, president and chief executive of the Lodi Chamber of Commerce, said Tuesday that the Chinese trade group should include about a dozen visitors who would meet with local business, agriculture, government, transportation and tourism representatives. A firm date for their arrival is not yet set, but it should be within the next two months.

This is just part of a years-long effort to build stronger economic ties to China, said Mark Chandler, executive director of the Lodi-Woodbridge Winegrape Commission.

He and Patrick were among a small group that traveled to China in March.

"We've been over there, and now they're coming over here," Chandler said.

"These are just the first steps," he added. "We hope that we will initiate relationships that will bear fruit in the near future."

In fact, fruit, such as San Joaquin County cherries, as well as California-grown nuts, Lodi wine and other agricultural products, should be one focus of discussion.

Another will be welcoming tourism from China's rapidly growing middle class.

Packaged tours that included stops in San Francisco, Reno or Las Vegas, Yosemite and, of course, the Lodi wine country may prove appealing, Chandler said.

"Those are the routes we think are going to be the most attractive to Chinese tourists," he said.

Patrick said the chamber hopes to establish a presence inside U.S. trade offices in Shanghai.

"We are putting the final touches on an agreement with the Department of Commerce right now," he said.

That would establish a desk within the government offices for Lodi trade representatives to meet with potential customers.

"It certainly gives us a tremendous amount of credibility when you're going to meet somebody at the U.S. Department of Commerce office building," Patrick said.

China is an enormous emerging market, a fact that has prompted at least one Lodi winery, Van Ruiten Family Winery, to establish its own sales office in that country.

"Even if you have a little sliver of the market in China it's a huge opportunity by our standards over here," Patrick said.

"We're the largest wine-producing area in the United States; shouldn't we be looking for the largest customer in the world?"

Increased China trade also could take advantage of the Port of Stockton, with its available foreign trade zone and economic incentives to bolster new ventures, said Richard Aschieris, the port's director.

"The port has a lot of special ways to help further trade," he said Tuesday. "Anything the port can do to further trade, of course, creates local jobs."

Stockton's port is limited, however, because it handles only bulk cargo - such as steel, sulfur, cement and fertilizer - and not the shipping containers in which the great majority of products are carried.

But Stockton, in partnership with the ports of Oakland and Sacramento, seeks to develop a container-handling capacity. The system would involve putting shipping containers on barges in Stockton and Sacramento, then carrying them to Oakland, where they would be loaded onto deep-water freighters.

"Even though we may not be configured in such a way today, we could be and we could be as early as (within) the next 24 months if we are fortunate enough to obtain the grant from the Department of Transportation," Aschieris said.

That would allow the port to handle Lodi wine, as well as products from throughout the Central Valley, packed into containers.

Contact reporter Reed Fujii at (209) 546-8253 or rfujii@recordnet.com.