Chinese Buyers Trust Quality International Wines

More China Wine Market News…

The boom in wines sold to China from old and new world wine making regions is in part due to an increasing trend to ‘trust’ international brands for being properly made and for being healthy – in addition to being a way to spend their new found wealth. The preference for international wine brands is becoming more obvious among Chinese urban consumers, who have grown increasingly aware of beverage safety issues, said Gao Jianfeng, general manager of the Shanghai-based Bogo Consultants. This has been ‘further helped by the recent surge in domestic commodity prices, driven by inflation and higher costs which has made foreign food products more affordable to the growing middle class of buyers’, Gao said. At a Walmart store in Shenzhen, China (which is very premium standard compared to USA outlets) imported wine and alcohol products are often among the best sellers in the whole store, Jiang said. ‘This branch once sold more than 500 bottles of Hennessy XO cognac in a single day’, said Jiang Wei of the corporate affairs department. “This is a sign not only of the Chinese consumers’ demand for imported food products, but also of their level of maturity and understanding of high-quality products.”