The Chinese government has recently announced that it will be examining claims from its domestic winemakers that Australian exporters have been selling wine for less than it costs to produce in order to steal more market share, and that Australian winemakers are subsidised. While it is evident that Australian wine exports have indeed captured a considerable chunk of the Chinese market over the last few years, with exports increasing from $268m in 2015 to $1.75b in 2018/19, Australian producers and Chinese importers reject the dumping claims, indicating a willingness to cooperate fully with the 18 month probe. Our Farmer database at KG2 consists of over 5000 vineyards who have been battling to rebound from bushfires, a drop in tourism and declines in cellar door sales. The Chinese investigation could damage an already bruised industry looking to get back on its feet after a few tough years suffering the impacts of climate change. There are fears that China’s probe into Australia wine exports to China may follow the same pattern as recent moves against our barley industry – using ‘technical’ trade measures to disguise what could be political sanctions. The empirical evidence shows that the average price of wine units exported … Continue reading China’s Wine Dumping Allegations