“Made in China” has become a seal today, to no one’s surprise, on electronic parts, clothing labels, photovoltaic panels and even vehicles. The Asian giant has already taken action to see these three words in a different place in the future; in a place that few people now associate with a strong economy: wine bottles.

He’s got the muscles to pull it off.

China on the wine map. China is a manufacturing giant, a major technological workshop, a powerhouse in renewables and rare earths… and also – although this aspect is more overlooked – a solvent wine producer. The rankings vary from year to year, and data from industry body OIV shows that national production and consumption have fallen significantly between at least 2018 and 2022, but China remains a prominent place on the wine map.

It entered the Top 5 in the OIV classification, in 2020 Forbes ranked it the 10th global producer with 6.6 million hectolitres, and in 2022 Visual Capitalist ranked it 12th. Although its data is far from that of Italy, France or Spain, it allows it to strongly lead the industry in Asia.

Hectares of vineyards. What China can boast of is its huge grape production and extensive vineyards; This makes it one of the countries that devote the most space to vineyards in the world, after Spain and Italy.

It is estimated that in 2022 the country will have an area covered with vineyards of approximately 785,000 hectares, according to some estimates, this area will be over 800,000 hectares, and just over 14.8 million tons of grapes will be harvested in 2023 alone. With this data, the country would have monopolized more than 10% of the world’s vineyard area, although today at least only a small part of it is devoted to wine production.

make room in spain. With these data, it can be seen that although a significant part of the wine produced in the Asian giant is consumed in the country, Chinese producers are also looking at other markets with interest. Including Spanish. Chinese wines have been seen at trade fairs in London, Düsseldorf… Or Madrid, where the first official presentation of wines originating from Yantai was held at the end of last year, an important production center in Shandong. the country’s enormous weight on the wine map.

The China Wine Competition states that Shandong has more than 140 wineries, mostly on the north coast, bringing together 40% of the national production. As they recognized in statements compiled by the specialist website Verema, the aim of their delegation was to “promote dialogue” for the exchange of ideas and “to lay the groundwork to gain a place” at the Spanish tables. Yantai is a reference in the Chinese industry. At the end of the 19th century, the country’s first industrialized winery, the Changyu Pioneer Wine Company, was founded here.

Click on the image to go to the tweet.

A long-standing interest. This is not the first time the Chinese industry has looked with interest at Spain. In 2016, Marques del Atrio winery, which holds a significant stake in Ghangyu Pionner Wine, advanced plans to import Changyu Noble Dragon, a Chinese wine. His shared goal at the time was to market it on the shelves of major chains and restaurants. The announcement marked the distribution of the first Chinese broth available for sale in Spain.

Take advantage of the charm of your kitchen. “Yantai region aims to strengthen its presence in Spain with Chinese gastronomy, offering fans the opportunity to try oriental wines at their favorite restaurants.” World After the event held in Madrid at the end of last year. The industry has also launched a rollout for journalists specializing in the industry.

“It is not a competitor but a complement to the Spanish wine market. We are aware that the quality of Chinese wine is still not as high as Spanish or French wines for many reasons. Moreover, the cost of Chinese wine is higher. Since the majority of wineries are young, just like the vineyards”, there are many statements compiled by . World. Among the wines from the Yantai region, for example, there is Chinese Château Lafite for 300 euros.

Ziyang Zhang, Yantai’s official ambassador and director of the Peñín China Guide, also recognizes that we will still have to wait to see a wide distribution of these wines. “We do not currently have importers of Chinese wine in Spain, but they are available, albeit in small quantities, in foreign Asian markets such as South Korea, Japan or the USA,” he comments.

Click on the image to go to the tweet.

key, context. Words matter and context matters. The Chinese wine industry is going through a strange period due to the decline in domestic demand. “China has been one of the major sources of global wine demand growth this century, accounting for 7% of global wine consumption and imports in 2017. However, China’s per capita wine consumption peaked in 2012 and has fallen annually since 2017 In 2022, it was at one-third of its peak, and imports have fallen by more than half since 2017, according to a study in the journal. Journal of Wine Economics.

Its authors note that some of this “distress” can be explained by the effects of the pandemic on both imports and the pockets of Chinese consumers, but it also suggests that the decline in demand predates COVID-19. “The decline in alcohol consumption in China began three years ago. And between 2019 and 2022, this decline was much greater for wine (47%) than for spirits (17%) and beer (3%). Thus, the share of wine in alcohol also increased. China “Consumption in Turkey has fallen by two-fifths in these three years,” they say.

Less, but rewarded. Against this background, Chinese wine production has been marked by several trends in recent years. The first of these is the decline in production, confirmed by the OVI itself, which in its report a year ago noted a more than noticeable decrease in production between 2021 and 2022, in line with the trend recorded over the previous decade.

“The decline in wine production in China is a result of, among other factors, the decline in domestic demand and some structural problems such as harsh climatic conditions, technological limitations and low productivity.”

Another highlight is the transformation of the Chinese industry itself, which has managed to win prestigious medals for its wines, seen wine tourism flourish in the Ningxia region, been equipped with the amazing Yantai Changyu International Wine City, and expanded internationally. , purchasing and investing in Bordeaux vineyards and even expanding into wineries in Spain or Italy.

Pictures | Fredrik Rubensson (Flickr) and the Visual Capitalist

in Xataka | Wine in France is experiencing an existential crisis. They want to uproot thousands of vines in Bordeaux