Hongkong International Wine and Spirits Fair Sounds “Cold ”
The Eleventh Hongkong International Wine and Spirits Fair opened in Hongkong Convention and Exhibition Center from November 8th to 10th.
In the past, This Fair offers good opportunity for importers, distributors and wineries to negotiate and cooperate. It was called the industry guide by vintners.
However, new changes have taken place this year. Many vintners visited the Fair and told WBO that the overall feeling of the exhibition is much “colder” than that in previous years, and the willingness of purchase is not strong from vintner side.
1
Vintner’s purchasing intention
on the wane
Because of its unique geographical advantages and business environment, Hong Kong has developed into a regional wine trade and distribution center, and also a gateway for wine to enter the Mainland China.
All previous Fair in Hong Kong have attracted brands and wineries from all over the world to participate in, but this year some vintners have reflected that both popularity of exhibition and business atmosphere were not as expected, compared with previous years.
Liu Rizhong, founder of a wine importing company under Alliance Art Group who based in Shenzhen, told WBO that the size of the exhibition hall this year is much smaller than in the past years. The two exhibition halls are not used up, and there are more local exhibitors.
The willingness of foreign exhibitors to participate in the exhibition is not strong, coupled with less visitors, the whole exhibition looks slightly cooler.
Mr. Liu, a Shandong importer who has just visited the HK Fair, said there are fewer exhibitors, smaller scale and fewer visitors.
2
Big producers were absent, while new faces brought surprise
"Among the participating countries, Czech Republic, Romania and other countries have appeared, but big wine producers have not come, all the influential leaders have not come too, which weakened the Fair’s momentum.” Liu Rizhong said.
According to his observation, new faces of the exhibition accounted for 30%, and the new exhibitors also brought some surprises to the exhibition. For example, in the spirits pavilion of the United States Department of Agriculture, exhibitors brought fashion way on wine tasting, putting wine in a container like perfume bottles, and spray wine to your mouth like perfume.
The vintner Song Xinyu from Ji Nan reflected that during the exhibition, Japanese sake accounted for almost one third of the whole exhibition hall, which may be related to the special invitation of Japanese sake from Hong Kong official.
It is reported that the new exhibitors are mainly from New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Sweden and Switzerland, and other countries. In addition, some showed at exhibition for the first time are regional organizers, such as Zhejiang Commercial Department, Administrative office of Eastern Foot of Helan Mountain wine producing region, Czech Republic Wine Association, Japan Qifu County, etc.
Some vintners believe that although the publicity of this Hong Kong Wine Fair is relatively strong, it has little effect, which may be affected by multiple factors.
Wine trade volume is saturated, sales in the three quarter is not ideal, vintners are still facing stock problem
Customs data shows that in the first half of 2018, the total volume of wine imported to China was 390 million litres, with an increase of 9.3% over the same period last year, and the value of wine imported to China was 12.71 billion RMB, with an increase of 17.6%.
Both imports volume and value are rising, but sales are cold. The traditional sales peak season in Mid-Autumn and National Day is also the best time for vintner to clear inventory.
However, sales in the third quarter of this year are not optimistic. Many vintners reflect that wines imported in the first half of the year are still in stock. At present, they are mainly trying to sold out the wines they imported before and have no purchasing intention.
Mr. Liu pointed out that in the past, the exhibitors of Hong Kong Wine Fair were mainly foreign wineries, because the orders of Chinese importers decreased in the second half of this year and the expectations of wineries were not high， so many of the exhibition plans were canceled by wineries.
Liu Rizhong also holds the same view. He believes that foreign wineries have already felt from some phenomena that domestic buyers are not willing to participate in the wine show, so this Fair has become a simple public relations act, then it makes little sense to these foreigner traders.
The status of Hong Kong wine communication center has been shaken. Many foreign wineries choose to go directly to the second and third tier cities in the mainland to promote their wines.
In addition to market factors, foreign wineries skipped Hong Kong and went directly to the mainland to participate in local exhibition such as China Food and Drinks Fair, which also shows that the status of Hong Kong Wine Fair is being changing now.
In this November, apart from Hong Kong, Interwine in Guangzhou and China International Import Expo in Shanghai were held almost at the same time, which objectively caused a certain diversion of exhibitors, and also diverted the distributors and importers.
Song Xinyu told WBO that in fact, the recognition of foreign wineries to the mainland market is still very high, but there have been several exhibitions in the same period recently, such as the wine Fair in Guangzhou and Shanghai.
Many wineries have multiple choices, which may divert some exhibitors. For example, the Argentine wine association participated in Interwine, and did not go to Hongkong.
Liu Rizhong also believes that there are many wine exhibitions held in the same period, which feels like a fight in domestic market.
If we can operate with a more integrated mentality, such as jointly holding a large-scale and highly concentrated wine exhibition, it will be welcomed by the vintners. After all, vintners do not want to rush around to participate in certain exhibition.
In addition, in recent years, opportunities for direct contact between foreign wineries and the mainland market have increased, and Hong Kong's position as a warehousing and transit centre is declining.
Liu Rizhong said: "Foreign wineries' participation in China exhibition should consider many factors, such as cost, exhibition professionalism, revenue and so on. Through their evaluation, Hong Kong may not be their best choice. In fact, Hong Kong's status as a wine exchange center is being shaken, that's why many foreign chambers of Commerce will scatter their budgets and go to the second-tier cities in the mainland, such as Chengdu, Zhengzhou, heading for clients directly.