2023-10-26 05:00:00
Hong Kong, here they come once more. From Thursday October 26, around forty Bordeaux winegrowers and merchants will return to the “Wine & Dine Festival” of the autonomous region of China, a first since 2018. The huge pro-democracy demonstrations of 2019, a replica of the umbrella revolution, then the Covid, had got the better of this Asian version of “Bordeaux celebrates wine”, co-produced with the Chinese since 2008 and which still attracted 180,000 people…
Hong Kong, here they come once more. From Thursday October 26, around forty Bordeaux winegrowers and merchants will return to the “Wine & Dine Festival” of the autonomous region of China, a first since 2018. The huge pro-democracy demonstrations of 2019, a replica of the umbrella revolution, then the Covid, had got the better of this Asian version of “Bordeaux celebrates wine”, co-produced with the Chinese since 2008 and which still attracted 180,000 people ten years later. But the event remained a symbol of the power of this market: the first for export, in value – the end of taxes on alcohol decreed in 2008 made it a valuable platform for reshipments – and in volume – we has sold up to 80 million bottles per year, or a large quarter of production (the French market represents 240 million bottles, to put it simply). It is half as much now, which allows us to measure the importance of this great return to the former British colony: the 40 million bottles sold over the last twelve months represent 437 million euros in turnover.
“It’s slowly picking up once more,” summarizes without triumph Christophe Château, the communications director of the Interprofessional Council of Bordeaux Wines (CIVB). “At the end of July, exports were up 22% in China and 44% in Hong Kong. » Good news: if the exchanges have changed little in terms of value, the volumes concern the “core range” of Bordeaux, precisely what the sector seeks to “sell” in the shadow of famous labels, often organic and organic wines. “easier”, in any case adapted to all tastes. The Hong Kong week is therefore full of “hopes to be confirmed”, especially since the Chinese will be entitled to the little sister in May, with the return of Vinexpo (read below).
700 million tourists
This means that it is time to reconquer this Chinese market born in the early 2000s and which has increased the commercial horizon of the oldest vineyard in France tenfold. This emerging Asian revival would be a godsend, in a context where French (and European) consumers shun red and prefer beer, or enjoy snubbing known terroirs and abandoning themselves to the exoticism of “small” AOC: the drop in wine consumption in France is around -15% on average in recent years.
Hong Kong is the prototype of the ideal market, with its 700 million tourists per year (as many potential ambassadors at such a show, not to mention expatriates) and its eight million inhabitants, who are used to to dine out, the restaurants being as numerous as the apartments are small. And then it is a public which is not insensitive to the new organic situation of the vineyard, while remaining very fond of red and sweet wines, whose sweetness fits well with the local gastronomy. At the “Bordeaux village”, 40 winegrowers will try to make them love dry whites, crémants and fresh rosés.
Vinexpo too
The “Bordeaux” brand is traveling to China this year. The return of Bordeaux winegrowers to Hong Kong, via the Interprofessional Council of Bordeaux Wines (CIVB) this All Saints’ Day is coupled with the first Vinexpo Hong Kong show, in May 2024, since the successive crises which closed China to producers French. With eight global events planned in 2023 and 2024 and 20 million euros in turnover in 2022, Vinexposium, born from the merger between the Vinexpo of the Bordeaux CCI and the leader in trade fairs Comexposium, has established itself as the leader of the trade show sector, where to sell the “art of living” and French terroir. Paris, New York, Amsterdam or New Delhi: international dates are multiplying. A new opportunity to develop the export of Bordeaux wines and thwart national economic shocks. “We are at the very beginning of a lasting crisis,” Patrick Seguin, president of the Bordeaux CCI, recently analyzed. “The plan to uproot the vines, decided to rebalance production and sales, will not be the only solution. » Export is a vital issue. “The people of Bordeaux need to be more aggressive, commercially speaking. »
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