June 15, 2017
Recent media reports that South Burnett winery Moffatdale Ridge plans to export 30,000 to 40,000 bottles of wine a year to Hong Kong are not correct … not yet, anyway.
South Burnett Wine Industry Association president Jason Kinsella told fellow members at the group’s most recent meeting on Tuesday that while his recent trip to China had been very valuable for gaining insights into that country’s wine market, he believed any signed export agreements between South Burnett wineries and China were still some time away.
Last month Mr Kinsella travelled to Hong Kong to attend HOFEX, Asia’s premier food and hospitality trade show.
His Moffatdale Ridge winery was one of six Wide Bay-Burnett businesses that attended the event as part of a State Government push to open up new Asian export markets.
In all, 22 Queensland businesses took part in the HOFEX trade mission.
Mr Kinsella said he held talks with wine distributors in southern China, Hong Kong and Taiwan at HOFEX, where he had a very positive reaction to the region’s verdelhos and red wines.
But because the Chinese way of doing business is based on building personal relationships, this would require a number of future trips to Hong Kong before any export deal could be inked.
However, Mr Kinsella believed there was a big future for the region’s wines in the Hong Kong market once suitable distributors could be found.
China is now Australia’s biggest wine export market, with shipments growing by 7 per cent in the past 12 months and in average value by 6 per cent.
Last year Australian wine exports to China were worth $520 million ($110m of that in Hong Kong), well ahead of the USA ($458m), UK ($355m) and Canada ($193m).
South Burnett wines could be transported by sea freight through the Port of Brisbane, and Wellcamp Airport’s weekly air freight service to Hong Kong could be used as an alternate route for urgent orders.
Mr Kinsella said he was so confident of future exports he was looking at expanding his own Moffatdale vineyards.
However, it would be several years before any new plantings came into production.
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