Guest Post from subscriber Kevin, the Tamar Man
“Subscribers of BWU20 may be aware of the decision of the relevant part of the Chinese Government to investigate wine sourced from Australia as being “dumped” into the Chinese wine market. That is to say, that Australian wine is being offered for sale in China as prices less than the cost of production.
See, for example – https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-27/chinese-australian-wine-insiders-say-no-dumping-no-subsidy/12602172
This decision to hold an inquiry has sent shock waves through the export part of the Australian wine industry. Many of the exporters have considerable Chinese investment. Indeed, some of these wine companies are Chinese wholly owned.
Eg. https://weilongwines.com.au/
The implications for the Australian domestic wine market, and in particular BWU20 subscribers are potentially highly significant. One implication is that prices for Australian wine will be reduced as wine companies with significant export orders seek to cut their losses.
Another implication is that there will be a marked increase in the volume of wine being offered for sale on the Australian market with a cork stoppage. Chinese consumers will not buy screw capped wine, because of their view that the contents can be easily substituted with inferior wine or wines. I speak from experience: all wine offered for sale in China has cork stoppage.
So, at the BWU20 wine market segment there will be consumer gains.
For the broader Australian wine industry it is a severe body blow.