New Zealand wine industry must mount a joint effort to crack Chinese market

New Zealand's wine industry must mount a joint effort if it is to crack the Chinese market, an Australian consultant has told wine exporters. 

Frank Gibson, an experienced adviser to businesses entering China, told an Auckland workshop that New Zealand wine had enormous prospects. 

But it was a market which needed to be educated. Mr Gibson said Chinese consumers only really began drinking wine 10 years ago when its government cracked down on local grain-based spirits. 

Locally made wine now commanded 90 per cent of the wine market but it was drunk only on special occasions. 

The other 10 per cent was being filled by imported bottled wine, which was drunk by a growing number of sophisticated drinkers and commanded a fifth of the market's value. 

However, when young Chinese splashed out on imported wine it was generally French or Australian, because Australia had mounted a big campaign there.