Chinese Drinking Habits Changing

Posted - November 1, 2008

From Tea to Wine and Coffee

By Mark Muzhuo - as printed in O.W.N. Fall 2008

Tea is the most common daily drink in China. But for the upscale, highly educated consumer, things may be changing. Coffee and wine are finding strong acceptance, among affluent young professionals influenced by western lifestyles. Even though China produces the “robusta” coffee variety and imports some from Vietnam, the well known “arabiga” variety grown in Colombia, Peru and Brasil, may find an interesting niche at luxury hotels, restaurants and gourmet stores.

According to Coffee Festival, 2008 coffee consumption in China has increased by 15% every year. The coffee market is expected to grow by 70% in total volume sales between 2003- 2008 to reach 11,073 tones. Moreover, as tariffs on coffee imports go down, and more affluent Chinese consumers enjoy the taste, coffee may gradually become an integral part of the Chinese lifestyle in a few years.

With growing health concerns, and an emerging middle class, wine is seen as a healthier drink, taking over white spirit and beer, the traditionally prefered drinks by the Chinese.

“China already operates a remarkable vineyard area with more than 400,000 hectares,” says Henry Muehlbauer, sales manager of Riegel Weinimport, leading European organic wine distributor.  “There are already some really good organic wines from China in the market”, he says.

The giant country of over 1.3 billion people and a growing demand for western products, is definitely opening up opportunities for imported wines. “Red wine –known to be healthy for the cardiovascular system – is quite popular in Asian countries”, says Muehlbauer.

During BioFach China, Riegel Weinimport forged contacts with buyers from the whole Asia-Pacific region to launch trials with an assortment of organic wines. And even though most Chinese consumers are not familiar with wine, or do not know how to distinguish good wine, the effort to train their palates is a chance companies like Riegel Weinimport may find rewarding. The wine market in China is growing over 15% per year with a high margin of 30-50% for high-end brands.

Around the world, organic wine represents only 2.3% of all vineyards, half of its production concentrated in Italy, France and Spain. But it is a booming segment, as witnessed during the past Biofach fair in Nuremberg, where 336 wine exhibitors from 21 nations presented an ever growing number of quality organic wines. And with the growing number of Chinese interested to disrupt their daily intake of tea with a cup of organic and specialty coffee or at least a glass of organic wine per week, there is a promising potential for organics in the largest market in the world.