Corporate News: Macau’s booming wine trade at risk

 Visitors to the Hong Kong International Wine and Spirits Fair sample wine

Macau’s exports of wine, which means Portuguese, to China have been booming: up five hundred per cent since 1999. This potentially much larger re-export industry could bloom much more, or wither, if opportunities provided by Hong Kong, as Asia’s new wine hub, and exploding demand in the China market, are adequately exploited or not.
Hong Kong’s sudden, meteoric rise to become the world’s second largest fine wine hub and China’s wine shop, has had spin-off benefits for Macau, providing a healthy spur of added competition and much greater marketing opportunities. A prominent Portuguese presence at the annual Hong Kong wine fair, which ended Sunday, will boost Portuguese wine sales, and more importantly their profile.
However Macau wine trader Pedro Lobo warns that Portuguese winemakers could lose, instead of gain ground, if they don’t target China’s future jackpot market in a more focussed and aggressive way.
Lobo warned too that when Chinese producers match Portuguese wine quality, boom could turn to crash...and soon. The next five years are crucial for Portuguese wine makers and traders - nearly half the China trade is initiated in Macau - to carve out niches or lose out, according to Lobo.
“The Chinese when they want to do something they do it” He added adding that while they lag far behind they will catch up quickly.
Portuguese wine stood out among the opening day’s events at the Hong Kong International Wine and Spirits Fair as Portugal’s wines were the most featured at dedicated special tastings. Two out of a total six tasting sessions in the tasting rooms were for Portuguese wines. By comparison at last year’s fair Portuguese wines were only sold and tasted at booths.
 While Lobo said the fair will reap important dividends, for the wine trade, he stressed that Portuguese producers need to fine-tune marketing and that China is too vast to be targetted as a whole. But for Portugal to meet the challenge of competing in this rapidly expanding market, it’s not just winemakers who need to move up a gear.
As for marketing, Portuguese winemakers need to and narrow down targetting to customers in two or three cities in China, at most, and then, preferably to specialist wine shops, hotels and restaurants, pay more attention to local tastes, and suggest wine food matches, Lobo said.
A number of wine experts agree that good Portuguese wine has advantages over many of its competitors: better price to quality ratios for many wines because they are little known internationally
and Portugal also has the largest amount of wine grape varieties allowing great diversity of flavour. One of only two Masters of Wine in Hong Kong, Debra Meiburg said she would “love to see more Portuguese wine take centre stage,” adding that it has increased in quality “by leaps and bounds.” More wine writers are waking up to this and the image of Portugal’s wines is improving from another perspective too according to Lobo.
“The new generation of wine makers are addressing
two image problems (that have dogged Portugal’s producers and their traders) quantity and quality”.
“It’s no good offering a ten thousand bottles and then being asked for another ten thousand if you don’t have them”adding the wine must maintain quality and taste every year. “The new generation understand that.”
Lobo talked to Macau Daily Times attending a wine professionals’ lunch at the Foreign Correspondents Club, in Hong Kong