China's wine market: Recent shocks, long-term prospects

Abstract

China was one of the world’s most important areas of growth in wine demand in the 2010s, accounting for 7% of the world’s wine consumption and 8% of its value of wine imports by 2017. But China’s per capita wine consumption peaked in the mid-2010s, and its wine imports have more than halved since then. As well, the sources of China’s imports of wine have fluctuated considerably over the past two decades, making this a risky market for wine exporters. Certainly the COVID-19 disruption played a role, but between 2019 and 2022 the fall in sales was considerably larger for wine (47%) than for spirits (17%) and beer (9%), such that wine’s share of alcohol consumption in China fell by two-fifths over those three years alone. The article examines reasons behind the dramatic gyrations in this globally important market and their impact on wine-exporting countries and speculates on future trends.