China leapfrogs Britain to become fifth-biggest wine consumer

Hong Kong - China has leapfrogged Britain to become the world's fifth biggest consumer of wine, according to a survey released Wednesday.

People in China, including Hong Kong, bought 156 million nine-litre cases (12 bottles) of wine in 2010, a 33.4-per-cent increase on the previous year, the annual study by International Wine and Spirit Research found.

Wine consumption rose 140 per cent in China from 2006 to 2010, the study said, putting it fifth in the wine-drinking league table for 2010 behind the United States, Italy, France and Germany.

Over the same four-year period, wine consumption in the US rose 9 per cent, but fell by 1 per cent in Italy, 8 per cent in France and 2 per cent in Germany.

China’s 156 million cases of wine compared to 141 million cases bought in the same year in Britain, followed by Argentina and Spain with 116 million and 98 million cases respectively.

The biggest wine drinkers in Asia on a per capita basis live in Hong Kong, which enjoys a zero rate of duty on wine. In the city of 7.1 million, the average adult drank five litres of wine in 2010, twice as much as people in Japan and Singapore and four times as much as people in mainland China.

French wine is the most popular for Hong Kong drinkers, accounting for 28 per cent of wine sales, followed by Australian wines with 20 per cent of the market and US wines with 11 per cent.

By total volume, Hong Kong people consumed twice as much sparkling wine and champagne as people in China, Japan, Singapore, mainland China and Taiwan combined, the study found.

Wine drinking in Asia has boomed in recent years, with China emerging as the number one global market for fine wines. Hong Kong has for the past two years sold more fine wine at auction than New York and London combined.//DPA