Changyu GM thinks China is awash with “garbage-like imported wines”
But local consumers are catching on
China’s biggest and oldest wine producer said on Monday that the country was flooded with “garbage-like imported wines” due to local demand, but predicted Chinese consumers will soon end their craving for them.
Sun Jian, general manager of domestic wine producer Changyu Pioneers, told alcohol trade publication The Drinks Business on April 30 that the market was awash with “shoddy” imported wine due to local perception that foreign wine is better.
“First, it has to do with Chinese consumers’ blind idolisation of imported wines, believing that any imported wine is good wine,” Sun said. “This is not to say there aren’t great wines, but a good portion of substandard wines are imported in, slapped with a flashy label to appeal consumers who don’t have much knowledge about wine.”
The wines Sun referred to are known as OEM wines, which are wines made by overseas wineries and bought in bulk by Chinese distributors, who then create their own brands and ship the wine back to the country of origin to make the wine seem foreign.
“But which winery would sell you their best wines for your OEM wines?” Sun said. “Their best wines are reserved for themselves. Once these one-euro wines arrive, they are bottled with a nice label, placed in a beautiful case, then sell for a hefty price. But it is deceiving consumers, and this kind of business has no future.”
Imported wine currently makes up about 30 percent of China’s wine market, with the rest dominated by local brands such as Changyu and Great Wall. But the growth of foreign wines has exceeded domestic examples, and the country is projected to become the world’s second largest wine consumer by 2021.
But “2018 is going to be a turning point,” Sun said, based on his prediction that local drinkers are catching on to OEM wines and the improvements Chinese winemakers have made over the past few years.
Chinese wines have been scooping up top awards at recent international wine competitions, such as a red marselan by Grace Vineyards from Shanxi Province, which won a Platinum Best in Show medal at the 2017 Decanter Asia Wine Awards. Many locally made wines are also shipped overseas, such as Changyu, which sends 75 percent of their production to 14 countries.
Changyu has also been buying up foreign wineries, with purchases in France, Australia, Spain, and Chile. And they plan to only import “good value” and “well branded” wines into China.
“We are not going to sell low-end and garbage-like imported wine,” said Sun.
