On the recent Wines of Chile Summit 2022, Aurelio Montes, president of the Chilean Wine Association (WoC), analyzed the current situation of the wine industry. He also made a positive outlook on the future challenges facing the industry. He also highlighted the Asian market as a huge opportunity for Chilean wines.
 
"I have no doubt that we will succeed in overcoming the period marked by adverse external conditions because we have strong convictions and, more importantly, we have high quality products recognized by the market," Montes said, according to the website of American Economics magazine.
 
Mr. Montes said that the Asian market is a huge opportunity who recognizes Chilean wines, even though the Chilean wine industry didn't think about it 20 or 30 years ago. "But now, Asian countries, especially China, have become the main export destinations for Chilean wine... Currently, nearly 30 percent of Chilean wine is exported to Asia, particularly China, South Korea and Japan. We have allocated a lot of resources to promote Chilean wines in Asia because we see great promise here. These countries have a lot of inhabitants, per capita wine consumption is close to 1 litre per year, and there is a lot of room for growth."
 
Chilean wine exports to China have recovered to pre-Covid-19 levels, with 3.68 million cases of 9-liter wine exported to China in the first half of 2022, up 114% year on year, reaching $141 million (FOB, same below), according to WoC. Chile has also become the second largest supplier of wine to China, after France. During the same period, Chile exported 2.145 million cases of wine to Japan, up 11.42 percent year on year; reaching $176 million, up 5.48 percent year on year. Overall, China, South Korea and Japan account for 29 percent of Chile's wine exports.
 
"We were all held back by the corona virus pandemic, and China's long-term quarantine policy held us at a standstill. But now we are bringing Chinese media, sommeliers and other influencers to Chile. They are the best marketing ambassadors, they are very happy with Chile and ProChile has been very helpful in this regard." Montes also stressed that they would seek to upmarket the wine and further recognize the quality of the product.
 
In addition, Fernando Díaz, WoC's regional director for Asia, detailed Chilean wine's plans to push further into the Asian market, saying that the advantage of the Asian market is that the growth potential is quite high.
 
"China is a very large economy and we are also very focused on the first-tier cities in China," Díaz said. In recent years, we have done a lot of wine promotion in cities with high purchasing power such as Shanghai, Beijing or Shenzhen." On the future, he said the opportunity for Chilean wine in China lies in expanding sales channels and getting more exposure to China's inland cities.
 
WoC will also explore the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) market in Asia, comprising 11 countries including Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Singapore, with which Chile maintains trade relations and which are also interested in wine products.