Author : Rob Temple – Sinowine
An overview of key Asian markets – showing the latest key economic indicators, import data and summary of issues facing China, the largest market in Asia, today.
Reading wine and other alcoholic drinks consumption trends in Asia is challenging at the best of times. No such undertaking should be made today without considering the economic challenges the region faces. This is particularly true in China, which has the additional complication of having import data skewed by opportunistic importers and distributors that have overstocked the market.
It’s worth taking a look at Asia’s biggest economy and the impact of current consumer confidence there before viewing the broader region.
Bottled wine imports to China peaked between 2015-2017 at around 687ML per year but have since seen a dramatic decline. Locally made wine production has also seen a rapid fall.
2024 wine imports were down to 281ML. This was up from 2023 – buoyed by a sudden inflow of Australian wines newly released from punitive tariffs. But imports continued their downward trajectory in 2025 falling to 209ML. All categories fell except Sparkling and White wines, however, values dropped 10% year-on-year vs 26% for volume.
But imports do not equate to consumption. Indeed, the extraordinary growth in wine imports that started in China 15 years ago was driven not by consumers so much as by importers and distributors, who saw wine as a more profitable alternative to the dwindling margins offered by beer and spirits. Records show that most of the newcomers to wine trading only ordered once or twice before they found a saturated market without sufficient consumption, or, that they lacked the understanding of how to manage a sensitive product.
Wine was also consid...
