China is set to leapfrog the US and UK in a matter of months to become Chile’s largest wine market, according to Julio Alonso, Asia director at Wines of Chile.
Speaking to the drinks business at ProWine China on 11 November, Alonso stated confidently, “Give me four months and China will be first”.
His bullish forecast is based on the fact that Chilean wine exports to China are growing at 34% in volume and 32% in value over the past 12 month period ending September this year, while the UK is posting declines over the same period, and the largest market, the US, is stagnating, with a 2% rise in both volume and value.
“The problem is that the UK is going down and the US is not an easy market for us as the moment – there is a lot of competition and Argentina has a strong position there,” explained Alonso.
Explaining why Chile’s wine sales are increasing at a rapid rate in China, Alonso picked out the free-trade agreement between the two countries as the primary cause.