China’s wine imports in 2016 are expected to increase by 25% over the previous year, which would make it the highest in the past five years.
The country imported 505 million litres of wines, worth about US$1.9 billion in the first 10 months of the year, an increase of 18.01% in value, according to data released earlier by the China Association for Imports and Export of Wine & Spirits.
The fourth quarter, as forecasted by industry insiders, is expected to continue to grow in both volume and value terms.
A commentator on China’s food industry Zhu Danpeng noted that the growth was largely due to importers and retailers underselling their stocks, citing massive price cuts that have been rolled out by retailers, e-commerce shops and restaurants across China since the mid-autumn festival in September.