China Remains the Leading Producer on the Asian Wine Market

IndexBox has just published a new report "Asia: Wine - Market Report. Analysis and Forecast to 2025". Here is a summary of the report’s key findings.

Asian Wine Market Reached 31B Liters, Accelerating Slightly over the Last Four Years

In 2016, Asian wine market reached $23.5B in wholesale prices. This figure reflects total revenue of producers and importers (excluding logistics costs, retail marketing costs, and retailers’ margins, which will be included in the final consumer price). 

In physical terms, the market achieved 3.2B liters in 2016. There was an upward trend from 2007 to 2016 with acceleration over the last two years. China was the country with the highest wine consumption, with 2.4B liters consumed in 2016, which accounted for 74% of Asian market (IndexBox estimates). It was followed by Japan (11%), and Georgia (2%). Each of the other countries in the Asian region is responsible for no more than 1% of the total volume of consumption.

Asian Wine Market Is Expected to Reach 4.2B Liters in 2025

China is the major wine consuming country in the Asia; in addition, low market saturation and population growth in this country is encouraging consumption increase. Consumption in China is set to remain consistently high in the medium term, and China will retain it tangible position on the Asian wine market. 

At the same time, globalization is exerting an impact on the spread of wine: the product is becoming increasingly popular in east Asian countries which were not previously renowned for an established, developed culture of wine consumption (except rice wine). 

At the same time, the wine market in the Asian region is diverse, as many Asian countries profess Islam, which prohibits the use of alcohol. However, the development of tourism in these countries stimulates the demand for wine in tourist areas. 

In addition, in some Asian countries, winemaking has deep traditional roots (for example, in Georgia), or is a legacy of the colonial period (Vietnam, India, etc.), which explains a certain level of sustainable demand for wine. 

The emergence of a middle class, a sizeable, rapidly increasing population, and rising household incomes may be viewed as the driving factors accounting for wine consumption in the developing-economy markets, primarily in South-East Asia. The reasons listed above, along with ongoing urbanization and an increasingly popular 'Western' lifestyle, are contributing to the wine consumption culture in Asian countries. Despite the current low figures in terms of per capita consumption and certain restrictive factors, such as the slow transition from traditional alcoholic beverages towards wine products, religious consumption patterns, among others, the Asian countries are set to become the impetus for increased global wine consumption. 

As a result of the factors highlighted above, the Asian wine market is projected to expand at an accelerated rate of up to, on average, +3.0% a year; this is expected to result in increased consumption of up to 4.2B liters by 2025. 

Production of wine accelerated over the last years Production of wine reached 2.2B liters in 2016, with an upward trend over the last few years. Production volume was relatively stable from 2007 to 2012, with a notable growth in the following years. It expanded with a CAGR of +2.3% from 2007 to 2016.

In 2016, Asian wine production value increased by 5% to $17.8B in 2016, fluctuating somewhat notably over the last ten years against changes in prices.

China Remains the Leading Wine Producer

China was the key Asian wine producing country with an output of about 1.8B liters in 2016, which accounted for 81% of total Asian output. The other major producers were Georgia (104M liters), Japan (87M liters), Turkmenistan (39M liters), Uzbekistan (36M liters) and Turkey (31M liters).

The most notable growth rate in wine production among the main producing countries from 2007 to 2016 was attained by Turkey (+4.2% per year), Uzbekistan (+4.0% per year), and Japan (+3.7% per year) while China experienced more modest paces of growth. However, despite the slower average annual growth rates, in absolute terms, China's production growth is the fastest in the Asian region.

Georgia and Hong Kong Remain the Largest Wine Exporters in the Asian Region

In 2016, the volume of Asia exports totaled 145M litres. Exports increased significantly from 2007 to 2014. In 2015, Asian wine exports dropped by 7% to 133M litres, however, in 2016 exports reaching its highest level. 

Georgia (26%), Hong Kong (19%), Israel (13%) and Singapore (12%) were the main Asian suppliers of wine, with a combined share of 70% of Asian exports. From 2007 to 2016, Hong Kong (+18.8% per year) and Georgia (+10.9% per year) were the fastest growing suppliers amongst the major exporters. 

Hong Kong and Georgia strengthened their shares in the structure of Asian exports by +11 percentage points and +6 percentage points, respectively. Meanwhile the share of Israel reduced from 21% in 2007 to 13% in 2016. 

China Remains the Main Consumer of Wine Imports in the Asian Region

The volume of Asian imports totalled 1.2B litres in 2016, which was 57M litres (or +5%) more than year before. From 2007 to 2016, Asian wine imports increased steadily, acellerating over last two years, when imports grew by +21% in 2015. In value terms, the total value of wine imports  stood at $6.9B, with a CAGR of +11.8% over the period under review. 

In 2016, China (53%) and Japan (22%) were the leading destinations for wine imports, together making up 75% of Asian imports in physical terms. Amongst the major importing countries China (+22.2% per year) posted the highest annual growth rates from 2007 to 2016. Meanwhile, Japan indicated more moderate growth rates of imports (+5.4%) over the period under review. 

In addition, the share of China in terms of the Asian imports increased significantly from 22% in 2007 to 53% in 2016, while the share of Japan reduced by -13 percentage points throughout the same period.

Do you want to know more about the Asian wine market? Get the latest trends and insight from our report. It includes a wide range of statistics on

• wine market share
• wine prices
• wine industry
• wine sales
• wine import
• wine export
• wine market forecast
• wine price forecast
• key wine producers

Source: Asia: Wine - Market Report. Analysis and Forecast to 2025