A new wine superpower? An analysis of the Chinese wine industry

Abstract

China is one of the most attractive wine markets and a hopeful wine producer in the twenty-first century. Current studies of wine in China tend to focus on the wine market but seldom analyze the domestic wine industry, which contributes approximately 70% of the total wine consumed in the country. This paper reviews the wine history and the development of wine in China and analyses the current situation and perspectives of the Chinese wine industry, considering both traditional conditions such as wine production and wine policies, as well as new conditions such as e-commerce, climate change and domestic economy trend. We present a "SWOT" (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis of the Chinese wine industry considering four sectors (producing, processing, selling and consuming) and we use a SWOT matrix analysis to identify possible improvement strategies. Finally, we propose strategies for the development of the Chinese wine industry at governmental level, industrial level and business level.