China Wine Market Briefs
While Covid-19 lingers, China beat analysts' expectations and became the only major economy to post growth in 2020. Wine trade, however, should caution retail sales data.
China reported highest Covid-19 cases after months of zero infection. China faces new surge of infections in northern and northeastern parts of the country. On January 15, it reported 130 cases nationwide mainly in Hebei and Heilongjiang, the highest in past 10 months, but the country has acted quickly to contain its spread including clear contact tracing and lock downing 28 million residents. However, this might affect the upcoming Chinese New Year travel numbers as cities and provinces are advising residents to stay put to reduce possible Covid-19 spread.
China’s annual economy grew by 2.3%, the only major economy that posted positive growth for the pandemic-gripped 2020, while US is expected to contract 3.6% and Eurozone by 7.4%, according to World Bank. China’s economic growth, as Wall Street Journal wrote, “underscores the country’s success in largely taming the coronavirus within its borders and further cements its place as the dominant economy in Asia”. Encouragingly, its Q4 grew 6.5%, the best growth rate yet throughout the year, signaling the country has reclaimed its growth trajectory before Covid-19.
However, for wine trade eager to gauge Chinese consumer sentiment, there are still some cautions. For the full year, retail sales fell 3.9% in 2020 from a year earlier, compared with 2019’s 8% growth.
One man in China is taking dry January to extreme. A man in Henan province was detained five days for creating a public disturbance after he changed his negative nucleic acid test result to positive and shared it in a 20-member WeChat group to avoid attending a banquet where he had to drink alcohol, according to local authorities. That’s very long-winded way to avoid booze at Chinese banquets ahead of Chinese New Year. However, in the past, it’s not uncommon to read news of deadly banquets where guests drank themselves to death because of notorious ganbei culture.
Baijiu will be Baijiu. The Chinese spirit has finally received its officially approved English name, which is “Chinese Baijiu”. Previously it was translated as “Chinese distilled spirit”.
Be sure to read our stories on Vino Joy News website for the latest on China’s wine market.
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