New Zealand wine in China: Hawke’s Bay gets cash for three-year marketing project

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By Jim Boyce

Some $500,000 will go to marketing Hawke’s Bay wine in China over the next three years due to funding by the AGMARDT (Agricultural and Marketing Research and Development Trust), according to this story by Roger Moroney in Hawke’s Bay Today.

“Over the past five years we’ve seen an explosion of opportunities in China,” said Lawrence Yule, mayor of Hastings in the Hawke’s Bay region. “It is going very well because they like our products there.”

Here’s more from the article:

[Hawke’s Bay Winegrowers executive officer James Medina] said 17 Hawke’s Bay wineries had initially signed up to be a part of a three- to five-year China marketing programme focusing on tasting and education events, public relations and social media marketing.

The funding approval was significant as the Hawke’s Bay wine industry was going up against international players like France, Spain, Australia and Chile who were also targeting the China market.

New Zealand is unique in having the highest-value per case among the top twelve sources of wine imports in China. At USD93, it stood 30 dollars ahead of second-place Australia at USD56. Unfortunately, New Zealand had the toughest time last year of those twelve. The positive news is value per case rose 10 percent, but it came on top of a drop in volume of 24 percent to ~2.6 million bottles and value 15 percent to ~USD20 million. Why? One theory is the impact of the government austerity program although I have never particularly associated New Zealand wines with official spending. If anyone has an alternative reason, please let me know.

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