Is China losing its taste for Australian wine? Industry frets over demand

‘Chinese wine consumption is much lower than it was before the import tariffs were imposed’, said a researcher for Wine Australia

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A shopper inspects bottles of Australian wine at a supermarket in China’s Jiangsu province in 2020. Photo: VCG via Getty Images

Published: 1:05pm, 29 Jan 2025

The lifting of trade tariffs by China triggered a surge in Australian wine exports last year, but it is unclear whether Chinese demand will remain strong after buyers have restocked, an industry body said on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, exports to the rest of the world continued to decline as high inflation and worries about the health effects of alcohol reduced global wine consumption, industry body Wine Australia said.

Australia is one of the world’s biggest shippers of wine. Its industry was hammered when China, its most valuable export market, used tariffs to block imports of bottled wine in 2020.

The Chinese embargo worsened problems of massive oversupply and low grape prices that have caused farmers to pull up millions of vines. Major producers such as Treasury Wines and Pernod Ricard last year announced sales of assets in Australia.

Beijing lifted its tariffs on March 29 last year after a warming of political relations with Canberra.

China’s President Xi Jinping speaks with Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during the G20 summit in Brazil in November. Photo: Reuters

Between then and year-end, Australia shipped 83 million litres of wine worth A$902 million (US$560 million) to mainland China, Wine Australia said, a monthly pace of exports similar to that before the tariffs.