China Wine Market Briefs
Chinese wineries are having their toughest winter yet, while a first-ever Chinese show on Italian wine debuted on China’s biggest streaming and video platform Youku. Will it be a game-changer?
Tonghua winery halts wine production due to covid-19
Tonghua Grape Wine, a Chinese winery located in northeastern China’s Jilin province, has announced that it is halting wine production due to the pandemic. The winery halted its production first last February but partly resumed operation in March. However, till now it still has yet to fully spring back to operation. One of the persons from the winery told Chinese media Yicai that full resumption of work is pending directives from relevant government departments, and that the new wave of infection in North China has put extra pressure on the winery. The winery’s revenue dropped by 66% in the first half of 2020, and the prolonged suspension of operation will definitely add doubts to the winery’s future.
China’s biggest winery Changyu says net profit down by over 50%
China’s biggest and oldest winery Changyu Pioneer Wine Company announced that its profit for the whole year of 2020 is projected to have shrunk by 50% to 59%. The main cause as it explains is the coronavirus pandemic, which continuously battered domestic wine industry.
The latest Covid-19 surge is causing Chinese New Year’s Eve dinner reservation cancellations.
The latest flare-up of Covid-19 that first surfaced in northern China is causing residents in the country to stay vigilant again about the virus. According to a report by Caixin, in many places, there’s increased reservation cancellations for New Year’s Eve dinner, the most important family gathering during Chinese New Year. Local governments seeing the surge are also advising residents to spending CNY locally to limit inter-city and inter-province travels. This, as Caixin wrote, won’t likely affect much of dining industry in first-tier cities like Shanghai or Beijing but for lower-tier cities, it will heavily impact small restaurants. Usually Chinese New Year is the most important and profitable period of the country’s dining and catering industry. In 2019, food consumption during the traditional Chinese festival accounted for 15.5% of the whole country’s dining sector’s annual revenue.
First-ever Chinese TV show on Italian wine debuted on China’s Youtube. Kiss Kiss, a lifestyle and travel TV show on Italian wine, has hit China’s streaming and video platform Youku, known as '“China’s Youtube”, last week. The show, jointly produced by Youku, NYSH Productions and Italian wine company Ethica Wines, is projected to attract over 20 million viewers in China. It follows the story line of a young single Chinese woman named Moly and documents her encounters with Italian culture, food and wines and most importantly, romance. The six-episode show marries The Bachelorette-like reality TV show flair with adrenalin-filled adventures. The show highlights six locations, Tuscany, Piedmont, Franciacorta, Trento, Sicily and Venice. Wines from the regions are heavily featured in the show. Read more about the show on Vino Joy News here. Kiss Kiss is currently on Youku and each episode will be aired on Fridays. You can watch the trailer here. (Unfortunately, Youku is only available in China, so in order to view it outside of country, you have to rely on almighty VPN.)
Be sure to read our stories on Vino Joy News website for the latest on China’s wine market.
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