China could be strong S.J. farm market

Lu Rong Hua, second from left, director of the Wine Monopoly Bureau of Shanghai, led an eight- member delegation from China that visited the Lodi chamber on Tuesday. to discuss the export of Lodi wine and other agricultural products.

Reed Fujii/The Record

LODI - China's burgeoning economy and rapidly expanding middle class hold great potential for sales of premium San Joaquin County products - including wine, cherries, tree nuts and olive oil.

That was the focus Tuesday as Shanghai officials visited the Lodi Chamber of Commerce for an export summit.

Lu Rong Hua, director of the Wine Monopoly Bureau of Shanghai and leader of the Chinese delegation, said wine may be the principal factor in fostering trade between Lodi and China, but it goes beyond that.

"The first impression I have so far is you have such a wide spectrum of products, not just wine itself, but cherries, nuts, olive oil and more," he said through an interpreter.

Lu noted that the Chinese middle class increasingly seeks premium imported products and that Lodi wines, such as the zinfandel and tempranillo he tasted at dinner Monday night, had flavor suited to the Chinese palate.

"These types of products can be quickly embraced by Chinese consumers," Lu said.

Bob Lauchland, chairman of the Lodi-Woodbridge Winegrape Commission representing its 750 grape growers and about 80 wineries, said China poses both a great opportunity and a challenge.

"It's interesting, the potential of this market," he said. "It's like being at the top of a mountain and looking out at the valley. ... There's a huge potential there. You're just not sure how to get there."

The growth potential is enormous.

Frank Gayaldo, who leads international business development efforts for the chamber, noted that China imported $1 billion of wine last year, compared with just $60 million in 2004.

Steve Coldani, whose family operates Coldani Olive Ranch, which had just made its first shipment of more than 100 cases of its premium Calivirgin olive oil to Shanghai, would love to see that type of growth.

"We're pretty sure this may have been the first shipment of California olive oil there," he said at the summit.

It was a one-time sale, perhaps, packed together with a large shipment of wine to a Chinese company planning to use the luxury products as corporate gifts.

So how do you turn that into regular sales to China?

"You just have to hit the road," Coldani said. "You can do things like this (summit event). You do a lot of this. ... You go to trade shows and try to develop a market."

Gayaldo knows opening the Chinese market takes a long-term effort.

He helped bring Chinese restaurant and hotel officials from Guangzhou - formerly Canton - to visit San Joaquin County in 2006. Then, two years later, it sparked a tour of Lodi by China's top diplomat in San Francisco, Consul General Gao Zyhansheng.

"Lodi received immediate results from that visit," Gayaldo said. "Ever since then, wineries in Lodi have been getting numerous inquiries from Chinese buyers, and what was an idea, which was us selling wine to China, is now a reality."

The visit this week can only enhance those sales, he said.