The Australian wine industry faces a profit squeeze as it scrambles to find new markets for a robust 2021 grape harvest as $1.3 billion of exports to China disappear.

Industry experts say profit margins among the 800 wine companies which had built up the export market to China over the past decade only to have it suddenly removed through punishing wine import tariffs of up to 212 per cent will be severely dented. It is in contrast to other industries targeted by China such as Australian coal, which appears to have had early success in diverting to other customers.