Organisers of the three-day Vinexpo Asia-Pacific expect demand for imported wine to weather the slowdown in Chinese economic growth, forecast to fall to 7.5% this year from 9.2% in 2011.
A deep dip in prices of Bordeaux's most prestigious, investment-grade wines last year suggests the Chinese-driven speculative bubble may have burst, but the market for more modest mid-range wines will open up, they said.
"The promise of the Chinese market and the Asian market continues to be very high. The growth is still there," Vinexpo chief executive Robert Beynat told AFP.
China leapt to fifth place of top wine consuming nations last year, overtaking Britain, and Asia is expected to account for more than half of worldwide growth in consumption over the next three years, organisers said
China is the world's biggest drinker of spirits, with 995 million cases guzzled in 2010 - almost double the volume consumed in 2006, according to Vinexpo.
But the average mainland Chinese drinker still only consumes 1.3 litres (0.34 US gallons) of wine a year, compared with 2.4 litres in Japan and 50 litres in France.
Wine producers are looking forward to a "bright future" as the market matures and consumption grows, especially as Chinese drinkers learn that good wine need not cost a fortune, Beynat said.
"It's fashionable (in China) to have very expensive wine and to offer your friends very expensive wine. The challenge for the industry is to show that there is good wine at every price," he said.
Around 1000 exhibitors attended the expo at Hong Kong's harbourside convention centre, from the great French chateaux to major global distributors and the best of the "new world" such as California and Australia.
French wines account for around 45% of Chinese imports in terms of value. The Bordeaux region alone sold 334 million euros (US$420 million) worth of wine to China last year, a 91% increase over the year before.
"The solid base we have, but we need to look at how we go to the next step," Bordeaux Wine Council president Georges Haushalter said.
Source: AFP
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