South Africa aiming for bigger share of Chinese market
South African winemakers are redoubling their efforts to gain a firmer foothold in the lucrative Chinese market, where they currently only have less than 2% share.
Last week producers from South Africa were out in force at the biggest ever tasting of the country’s wines in Hong Kong, in an attempt to dispel the commonly-held conception that it is only capable of producing cheap and cheerful wines.
In both Hong Kong and China, South Africa has a meagre share, exports dropping in both markets in the past year. Exports to Hong Kong amounted to 0.92 million litres, a year on year drop of 1.1%, representing a market share of only 1.5%, according to data from Hong Kong’s Commerce and Economic Development Bureau. And in mainland China, South African wine exports dropped by 10% to a value of US$34.78 million, accounting for 1.6% of the market. The average bottled wine price dropped by 13.5% to US$3.62.
“I think the reason for the lack of South African wines in the market is due to a lack of investment and focus from South African producers in the last 20 years,” said Rollo Gabb, chairman of Premium Independent Wines of South Africa, an association comprised of 10 of the country’s boutique producers, and owner of Jouney’e End. “But we are now ready and we are coming in.”
He added that given South Africa’s success in Europe and particularly in the UK, that there must also be a market for premium South African wines in Hong Kong and China given what they believe are the similarities to French wines.
“Style wise we feel that our wines are a bit closer to France as we’ve seen the success of French wines in Hong Kong and China, so stylistically we feel like our wines will fit the Asian Palate,” reported Drinks Business.
However, he emphasized that South Africa was not trying to “copy” France, stressing that all of the country’s wines are “site specific, true to their terroir.”