China’s wine consumption has dropped by more than half since 2018, according to the OIV (International Organisation of Vine and Wine). It is one of the sharpest declines the global industry has ever experienced, writes Natalie Wang in Vino Joy News.
At a panel discussion last month in Shanghai, several of China’s most prominent wine‑industry figures shared their views on what is happening in the country.
Wine has never held a large share of China’s total alcohol market, perhaps 2-3%, but even this small share has shrunk. When the real estate sector began to slow, the same happened to the occasions that had once driven wine sales: business dinners, corporate gifts, and government banquets.
Then came China’s anti‑corruption campaign, which put an end to extravagant alcohol bills in both the government and the business world. After 2018, the decline accelerated further as China and the West drifted apart culturally and economically.
But the panellists argued that China’s wine consumers have not disappeared; instead, they have changed. As Wang Fang, owner of the Kanaan winery in Ningxia, put it: “People used to buy wine for their boss, their clients, or their friends. Today, they buy wine for themselves.”
Read more here: vino-joy
