According to the China Association for Imports and Exports of Wine & Spirits, Australian wine has taken hold of the Chinese market and become the biggest bottled wine importer by value as of October 2017. Although France still leads in overall import volume, Australian wine imports in China totaled over $69.6 million for 8.42 million liters. France, by comparison, imported 12.89 million liters from $63.8 million.
China’s imported wine sector has grown year after year. The country imported 601.3 million liters of wine worth about US$2.21 billion in the first 10 months of 2017, which is a 18.92% increase in volume and 15.16% increase in value in comparison to 2016. China has become Australia’s most valuable export wine market, exceeding even the US. Numbers are expected to continue increasing following a tariff reduction in January of 2018. In 2015, China and Australia signed a Free Trade Agreement that acted to lower tariffs over the following 5 years and completely eliminate them by 2019.
Source: THE DRINKS BUSINESS, December 2017