Women teach how to sell Italian wine in China
Lady importers, journalists, managers, these can tell us about the future of Italian wines in China: lots of problems and certainty, e-commerce
Female wine managers all together
Stevie Kim, managing director of Vinitaly International, placed around a table 4 lady importers, two lady journalists, and the lady author of the study regarding the trend of wine imported into China.
8 women who are opinion makers in their own nations. This took place in Shanghai and the results were very interesting. According to them Italian wine must use the web to get into the Chinese market.
Linda Wu (journalist for vinehoo.com), Joanne Jiang (general manager Cuve International Trade), Lu Zhang (general manager Innex China), Sophie Liu (author, journalist, wine critic), Emma Tang (marketing manager Iking winery), Cin Xu (importer for Shanghai Chuxiao Trade).
In China there are more than 100.000 distributors and 10.000 importers all convinced that French wine is the best. <<It is difficult to explain to a Chinese
Donatella Cinelli Colmbini with Stevie Kim
the complexity of the Italian wine panorama>> says Joanne Jiang general manager for Cuve International Trade importing company, who two years ago began to import Italian wines. Her example regards Sangiovese <<strong and dry>> which is not well matched with Chinese dishes and after tasting maybe future acquisitions might be of wine of other nationalities.
In Asia the average consumer prefers in other words, sweeter flavours which are not very strong and this putts the importers in front of the choice between wines that are most accepted on the market and the high quality labels that are less comprehensible for the local taste.
Another problem is the price, which escalates by 48% because of taxes while this does not happen to wines coming from nations which have subscribed bilateral agreements with China.
It must be pointed out that those who can afford foreign wines are relatively few and these prefer the most famous brands, often choosing them because of the expensive price, as explained by Cin Xu, importer from Shanghai Chuxiao Trade. Banks, institutions, and large companies which constitute the main buyers of prestigious wines are in fact influenced by the international reputation of wines. It’s a hard life for Italian wines!
Stevie Kim and female wine managers
One of the few solutions to this problem is e-commerce and the use of social networks such as Sina Weibo, WeiXin, RenRen, Kaixin, Liba. This is the advice straight from Innext China who has as general manager Lu Zhong. It is true; the sales on line have increased a great deal during the last year. Night clubs, clubs, famous wine stores and wine magazines have all opened their own on line stores with sommelier from luxury hotels advising on the right wine for different occasions. But there is still a problem for us Italians: the majority of these super experts are French or British with a French wine education.
In conclusion the message we get from the Chinese Women of Wine is that one must know how to talk about and sell wine, it is not enough to know how to produce it!
Read for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini