New Zealand wine companies need to tailor their approach to every Asian wine market, says Hong Kong wine journalist Natalie Wang.<\/p>\n
“What works in Shanghai does not necessarily work in Tokyo or in Bangkok”, she told the Wine Business Forum audience in August. “You have to constantly adapt your messaging and stories, and even retail selling strategies.”<\/p>\n
For those nimble enough to navigate the complexities, the region represents significant opportunity, said the founder of Vino Joy News, noting that the region rivals Canada, New Zealand’s fourth biggest wine export destination, as a key market for New Zealand wines.<\/p>\n
The combined value of New Zealand wine exports to eight Asian markets is $172.5 million, compared to Canada’s $176.4m, Natalie told the audience, showing stellar stats for New Zealand wine in the likes of China, with a 55% increase in volume and 47% increase in value in the 12 months to June 2025.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, markets including China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Japan have much higher average price per litre than the United States and United Kingdom, she said.<\/p>\n
While China’s economy is slowing and wine imports are trending down, “New Zealand is an outlier”, she told the audience. “It’s punching above its weight. And that’s led by white wine growth from New Zealand wine producers and German wine producers.”<\/p>\n
She emphasised the importance of recognising shifts in transitional markets like China, where conversations about wine pairing, and selling to hotels and restaurants are out of line with trends. “What’s happening on the ground is a pivot from that business dining to a lifestyle driven and self-pleasuring consumption. That explains why white wine growth in the market is realling coming from ground up.” That’s a win for New Zealand producers because the category and branded image is already quite well known to consumers, she said. “That’s something you can leverage.”<\/p>\n
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In China, 30% of wine sales are online, according to IWSR data, Natalie said, touching on the “juggernaut” of instant delivery, with “anything imaginable” able to be delivwered to your door in 20 minutes. In her own trial, the wine arrived swiftly, chilled, and with a free corkscrew.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“You just can’t beat that kind of service, that’s the reality of peole consuming wine right now.” That means producers need to be adaptable, and to know the platforms that work in each market, including the Chinese social media and e-commerce app Xiaohongshu, known as Red Note, Natalie said. “I think part of the reason for New Zealand wine success in the market is that they are so savvy on social media platforms, like Red Note… if you are really interested in building that storytelling, you have to be on it.” The platform is “heavily skewed” to New Zealand advantage’s because 60% of the audience is female, “and they all have high disposable income”. Again, “adaptation is key”, she said. “I think if I have to leave you guys with one message, it is: you have to really think about the culture and the people you are selling your wines to.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand wine companies need to tailor their approach to every Asian wine market, says Hong Kong wine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":492391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3091],"tags":[162285,51,162287,162288,2441,162283,162282,162290,162286,16,15,162284,162289],"class_list":{"0":"post-492390","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-markets","8":"tag-asian-wine-consumers","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-china-wine-market","11":"tag-hong-kong-wine-journalist","12":"tag-markets","13":"tag-natalie-wang","14":"tag-new-zealand-wine-asia-markets","15":"tag-new-zealand-wine-growth","16":"tag-nz-wine-exports","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-vino-joy-news","20":"tag-wine-business-strategy"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115358623641237032","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}