A Wednesday report revealed that Australian wine exporters are still facing challenging market conditions because of the high tariffs imposed on China.
Wine Australia released figures showing that Australian wine exports declined by 26 percent in value to A$2.05Billion (US$1.5B) and by 13% in volume to 628M litres for the year ended March.
Exports, including mainland China, decreased by 3 percent but rose by 7 percent in value to A$2.03 Billion, the highest since 2010, according the government statutory agency.
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“While the increase in value exempting mainland China was strong at A$129m, it didn’t come close to compensating the decline in mainland China’s value with a loss A$844m,” Rachel Triggs, Wine Australia general manager of corporate affairs, regulation, said.
China Officially applied dutiesBetween 116.2 and 218.4 Percent on Australian wines in containers up to two litres from March 2021 to 2026 following anti-dumping investigation.
Triggs stated, “Over the last 15 months, Australian wine exporters had to navigate through an extraordinarily challenging operating environment. This was largely due to the imposition of high deposit rates on bottled Australian wines imported to mainland China and the continuing impact from the global freight crisis and a counter-swing at some markets after Covid-19-related stockpiling in 2020.”
The ongoing trade disputeAccording to reports, millions of grapes are being left to rot in vineyards across Australia because of the trade relations between China and Australia.
James Laurenceson, director of the University of Technology Sydney’s Australia China Relations Institute, stated that small-scale producers tend to concentrate on one or two markets. This is because they don’t have the resources to market to multiple markets.
“China was the focus of many. They were left behind when the China market effectively shut down.
Wine Australia’s latest Export Report today shows that Australian wine exports declined by 26 percent to $2.05 billion in value and 13% in volume to 628 millions litres in the 12 months to March 2022. https://t.co/AenwiWf1KJ
Wine Australia (@wine_australia). May 3, 2022
Wine Australia stated that the key drivers for growth in export value during the first quarter of the year were Singapore and Hong Kong, Thailand, South Korea and Taiwan.
Wine Australia stated that the decline in total wine exports, which excludes mainland China, was caused by Australia’s two largest markets, the United Kingdom and the United States. The ongoing global freight crisis also played an important role in the decline.
Since Beijing banned Australian coal and wine, beef, wine, wine, crayfish and log timber, Australia has been trying reduce its dependence on China.
Triggs stated that diversification efforts were “slowly paying off” for Australian wine exporters. He also said that the removal of coronavirus restrictions would allow some markets to open up and stabilize demand.
Canberra lodged a Formal complaintConcerning China’s wine tariffs, the World Trade Organization (based in Geneva) agreed to create a dispute-settlement panel in October to address the complaint.
This article first appeared in South China Morning Post (SCMP)., the most authoritative voice reporting about China and Asia for over a century. You can find more SCMP stories at the SCMP appVisit the SCMP’s website FacebookAnd Twitter pages. Copyright 2022 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd.
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