Australian wines challenging French wines in China market

Aiming to capture more of the market, Wine Australia has appointed two representatives to mainland China and a director for Asia, Lucy Anderson, in Hong Kong to promote Australian wine. China's imported wine market made up about 10% of its total 1.48 billion liter table wine market in 2010.

"We'd like to be growing faster than the market is," said Ms. Anderson in a telephone interview from Hong Kong.

Rabobank said the Chinese market for table wine was estimated to have expanded in excess of 20% annually over the past five years, with the market for imported bottled table wines growing at over triple that rate. In an effort to boost the profile of Australia's wines, Wine Australia brought 100 Chinese involved in wine trade, media and education to Australia this month to tour the country's wine regions and give them a sense for where Australian wines are produced.

"Part of the reason for the vintage trip was to demonstrate the quality of Australian wine and the pristine nature of the environment where it comes from," said Ms. Anderson.

Australia's main competitor in the Chinese market is France, which in the year through February held 47% of the bottled market in volume terms, compared with Australia's 15% share, according to figures from Wine Australia.