In the first 7 months of this year, the import of wine in Fujian Province has grown significantly

According to customs statistics, Fujian Province imported 6.725 million liters of wine in the first seven months of this year, an increase of 45.8% compared with the same period of last year; it was worth 18.73 million US dollars, an increase of 47.7%; the average import price was US$2.7 per litre, rising. 1.3%.

I. Main features of Fujian wine imports in the first 7 months of the year

(1) General trade is the main channel for imports. In the first 7 months of this year, Fujian Province imported 5.929 million liters of wine by general trade, an increase of 41.3%, which accounted for 87.6% of the total wine imports of Fujian in the same period. In addition, the import of warehousing re-exports in the bonded zone reached 778,000 liters, an increase of 76.9%.

(b) Private enterprises are the main importers. In the first seven months of this year, Fujian's private enterprises imported 4.729 million liters of wine, an increase of 82.4%, which accounted for 70.3% of the total wine imports of Fujian during the same period. In addition, state-owned enterprises imported 1.395 million liters, a decrease of 14.3%, accounting for 20.7%.

(iii) The EU is the largest source of imports. In the first 7 months of this year, Fujian Province imported 4.609 million liters of wine from the European Union, an increase of 69.3%, accounting for 68.5% of the total wine imports of Fujian in the same period. In addition, imports from Australia reached 96.3 million liters, a drop of 2%; imports from Argentina reached 414,000 liters, an increase of 17.5%.

Second, the current wine imports worthy of attention

As China's economy continues to grow rapidly, the per capita income level of citizens has risen, the consumption structure has been upgraded, and the degree of recognition of wine continues to increase, and the consumption of wine has also shown a trend of rapid growth. In addition to the further reduction of import tariffs on wine, the wine substitution effect caused by the increase in consumption tax on white spirits has further manifested, and the current per capita annual consumption of wine in China is only one third of the global average. This has caused various wine dealers to make Grab the Chinese market. The current situation of wine import is worth noting:

(a) The quality of imported wine is mixed, and prices are confusing. China's wine supervision is still in its infancy, and it only distinguishes between qualified and unqualified wine quality grades. Under the rough classification system, most of the commonly-imported wines in the market are self-labeled by the company. Not only are there more and more complicated, consumers do not know what to do, and the quality of imported wines is mixed and the price is chaotic. At present, the wine importation generally adopts the re-OEM model of “original barrel imports, blending and packing”. Driven by profits, some imported wine agents used blending and dilution to obtain better profits during the sub-assembly process, and even concealed low-quality imported wines through blending, sweeteners, etc., leading to mixed quality of imported wines. At the same time, because the current domestic consumer brand recognition of foreign wines is not clear enough, there is no specific trust brand when purchasing, which has also led to the phenomenon of sky-high imports of wine.

(b) The impact of imported wine on domestic wine industry development. Imported wines have more natural quality advantages than domestic wines, and they cover high, medium, and low grades, creating full-scale competition with domestic wines. Many imported wine merchants adopt the method of group purchase and direct marketing to reduce intermediate links, making imported wines more price-competitive. Imported wines are generally more profitable than domestic wines, attracting domestic distributors to be more willing to market imported wines, to a certain extent. Impact on the domestic wine industry's market share. At the same time, the lack of rationality in the construction plan of the vineyard area in China, the unscientific use of pesticides and fertilizers in the grape growing process, and the fact that the year's labeling of wines and the use of food additives are not standardized, and on the other hand, the imported wines are more easily recognized by the market. In addition, the adjustment of the liquor consumption tax has increased the tax cost of many domestic liquor companies. Since the second half of last year, the terminal prices of high-end liquor market in China have shown an accelerating upward trend. High-end liquor has risen several times before the Mid-Autumn Festival and the National Day holiday. The imported wine has accelerated its entry into the Chinese market and has also caused some erosion in the market share of liquor.

(3) The regulatory risk of imported wine is relatively high. Due to the influence of many factors, such as the year, production area, grade, winery, grape variety, brand, and import volume, the prices of different types of imported wine may be very different. Some unscrupulous traders lower prices by forging invoices, modelling and translating wine labels, and authentic counterfeiting as deputy licenses. In particular, wines imported from the original barrels are not easy to determine the grade of the year, and the phenomenon of understatement of prices is even more prominent. At the same time, the problem of irregular declaration of imported wines has occurred from time to time, with omissions, incomplete declarations and other phenomena occurring from time to time, and customs supervision faces great challenges.