This year, ProWine Shanghai will be held for the sixth time within the framework of the international food, hospitality and retail fair FHC China and promises to be the world’s wine fair and an important milestone in the promising cooperation with China.
The forum will be held in November, but companies are already thinking about all the details of participation.
“Only two regions of Russia will present their products: Crimea and the Krasnodar Territory,” Ksenia Slutskaya, director of the Southern Regional Export Support Center, told RG. – At least eight companies will travel from Crimea to Shanghai. A collective stand is built with state money, the registration fee and the rental of the exhibition space are paid. For those participants who do not have a Chinese website, we will help you create one before the opening of the event so that you can fully present your export potential.
ProWine has been held since 2018 and during this time it has become China’s leading wine and spirits specialist exhibition. Manufacturers, distributors and equipment suppliers from 40 countries around the world come together in one place. Suffice it to say that some 15,000 professionals visit the exhibition each year.
It should be noted that the products of Russian winemakers are already familiar in the Middle Kingdom. In July 2016, the Crimea Massandra association supplied the first 17,600 bottles of dry and semi-dry wine to the Chinese market. Then came white chardonnay, red cabernet and merlot, saperavi, as well as aged sémillon “Alushta”, semi-sweet red cabernet “Massandra”, red and white “Pearl of Massandra” and semi-sweet rosé muscat “Massandra” . Already in the first quarter of 2017, the Crimean company shipped 75,000 bottles of wine to China. From the Krasnodar Territory, Abrau-Durso, Kuban-Vino and Phanagoria sent their products to the Celestial Empire. Deliveries continued until the pandemic, when many supply chains were challenged due to severe health barriers at the border with China. Now national producers have the opportunity to catch up and even increase supply.
– Don’t think that in Asia they wait for us with open arms. Australia and other wine producing countries are present in this market. But recently, the Australians have seriously damaged relations with Beijing and introduced very strict tariffs on Chinese goods. This gives us an opportunity,” says the director of the Crimean winery, Valery Zakharyin. – We will not come to the exhibition and wait until they notice us, no, we work even before the exhibition. I have met very influential people in Southeast Asia who have extensive business networks. We are treated very well in both Vietnam and Thailand. Our embassies help. In Thailand we held a presentation and brought together senior managers from the most expensive five-star hotels. Everyone was happy.
Chinese wine experts suggest imports to the Middle Kingdom will increase by more than 30 percent. However, worsening relations between Beijing and the collective West are putting many agreements in doubt. And the crisis of wine overproduction in France speaks of the imbalance of this market. In this situation, domestic wine producers have the opportunity to take their exports beyond the Eurasian Economic Community and reach another level.
“A window of opportunity opens before us. Today we cannot say how long this will last, but it is necessary to take advantage of it, says Dmitry Sheryako, Minister of Economic Development of Crimea. – This year we will have the broadest representation of the wine industry at ProWine in Shanghai and we have something to surprise potential Chinese partners with.
