In 2017, China imported 751 million litres of wine, a record figure for the country. In 2020, the volume was down to just over 430 million litres, a decrease of 43%. The pandemic has hit the wine regions that are investing in exports to China hard. All wine categories registered a very strong decline.
Among the countries that export to China, only Argentina survived unscathed and even increased its exports of cheap bulk wine to China. But it is bottled wines that are important to China. Bottled still wines represented more than 70% of the volume and 90% of the total value.
China imported most wine from Australia, with France in second place, Chile in third and Spain in fourth place. Given the import duties that China imposed on Australian wines in November 2020, the list will probably look different for 2021.
Read more: oemv
