September 27, 2016
A man known as Hong Kong’s answer to famous Australian wine critic James Halliday could be paying a visit to the South Burnett next year to help introduce the region’s wines to Chinese buyers.
Nelson Siu, the business manager of Wine Luxe, a bilingual magazine devoted to fine wines and lifestyle, met with South Burnett Wine Industry Association president Jason Kinsella earlier this month to discuss the idea.
Mr Kinsella told the South Burnett Wine Industry Association’s meeting on Monday night he had recently taken a short vacation in Hong Kong with his family.
While he was there, he had a meeting with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) to look at potential export opportunities.
DFAT staff told him Australian wines were very popular in Hong Kong, but at the moment it was almost impossible to source any Queensland wines there.
DFAT believed there might be genuine export opportunities for Queensland winemakers. Particularly since Australian wine now accounts for more than 18 per cent of Hong Kong’s annual $1.8 billion wine imports, and had doubled its market share in the last 30 months.
They thought Wine Luxe magazine, which distributes 20,000 copies a month to opinion leaders in Hong Kong’s hospitality industry, might be a good way to raise the profile of local wines and open doors for the region.
DFAT staff then set up a meeting between Mr Kinsella and Mr Siu to discuss the idea.
Mr Siu told Mr Kinsella he was very interested in visiting the South Burnett to put together a feature about Queensland’s wine industry.
His magazine has previously profiled other Australian wine regions – such as Western Australia’s Margaret River – and this had helped them open up new export markets in Hong Kong.
But if he couldn’t arrange a personal visit, Mr Siu said he would still be happy to publish a feature in Wine Luxe magazine if the SBWIA could supply his company with copy and photographs.
Mr Kinsella said the most likely buyers for South Burnett wines would be Hong Kong’s thousands of licensed restaurants, so the local industry would be looking at exporting pallet loads rather than container loads.
All the same, this volume would suit the region’s current production capacity.
The meeting voted to look at preparing a South Burnett feature for Wine Luxe magazine, as well as examine what would be involved in setting up export arrangements for the Hong Kong market.
