Australian winemaker see China as their saviour

There is a glimmer of hope for the hungover wine industry as China threatens to do for premium wines what it has done for Australia's resource sector, writes Colin Kruger. 

While wine exports to two biggest markets, Britain and the US, plummeted, China's imports boomed.

Bottled wine imports from Australia grew 32 per cent in value for June compared to the prior year, while the British and US markets dropped 33 per cent and 20 per cent respectively.

According to the June export data released by Wine Australia, Chinese imports in the $10-plus category almost equalled that of the US and British markets combined.

This figure does not include Hong Kong which managed to import more wine in this price bracket than the entire British market.

More importantly, most of the growth for China came in the $20 to $50 price bracket which more than doubled from June last year.

Wine Australia, the Australian government sponsored promoter, is responding to these changes. Anderson moved office from Adelaide to Hong Kong last year and now employs three staff in China.