Shandong: Imported Wine Witnessed a Sudden Surge

Imported wine is no longer synonymous with luxury. It was reported that Shandong had seen a sudden climb of imported wine from EU since last year, leading to a 60 per cent plummet of its price on average. Consequently, retail price of imported wine is roughly the same as homemade one. Accordingly, imported wine is no longer the privilege and fashion for elites and trendsetters.

Thirty yuan for American dry red wine

Thanks to the Spring Festival, not a few imported wines are on continuous sale for promotion. Surprisingly, a bottle of dry red wine from the US costs only 30 RMB. It was said that as long as it is imported, hundreds even thousands of yuan is no less normal; however, this year saw  around-100-yuan imported wines as best-sellers. Momentarily, almost people from all walks of life can enjoy the hesternal luxury.

Surging import causing 60% price plummet

Obviously, great increase of imported wines in recent years has something to do with their dropping prices. Statistics from Qingdao Customs shows that imported wines from EU at Shandong trading ports has reached 19.49 million liters in the first ten months in 2010, which led to a 60 per cent drop in price. Insiders analyze that the lowering tariff, worldwide economic crisis and the appreciation of RMB together brought in the heat of wine importation.

Sinicization of imported wines

It was reported that imported wine and domestic one would go halves in terms of market share in the coming three years though they are in the pattern of 2:8 currently. Unreasonable high prices of imported wines in the past are competitive compared with home-made ones at present due to the low-cost sub-package in the following of importation in bulk. The reason behind the phenomenon was that imported wines were on the road to be “sinicized” gradually, which led to their adjustments to China’s market step by step.

Opinions of insiders showed that the reduced price was a return to its true value. In addition, some mouth-feel adjustment, that is, high sugar content, was made so as to cater to Chinese people’s sweet-and-sour taste.