China make interim decision to remove wine tariffs

Victoria’s wine producers are hoping the lucrative Chinese wine trade will soon re-open, with a final decision by the Chinese government expected within days.

Victoria’s vignerons are holding on to hope that the lucrative Chinese wine trade will soon re-open, reviving what once was a $1.1 billion market nationally.

A decision on whether China will lift the punishing tariffs of up to 218 per cent it imposed on Aussie wine imports in 2021 is expected within days, after the Chinese Ministry of Commerce last week released a draft recommendation to remove the tariffs.

Pam Baumgartner, who runs Mia Valley Estate in Heathcote with husband Norbert and son Nick, began exporting wine to China in 2016, sending thousands of bottles a year.

“We sent a 20-foot container to China, which was 12,000 bottles, and then in 2017 and 2018 we sent 15,000 bottles,” Mrs Baumgartner said.

Pam and son Nick Baumgartner in the vineyard. Picture: Zoe Phillips

The tariffs stopped Mia Valley’s China exports altogether, and while they had a few other export destinations in Japan, the US and the UK, they also dropped off during the pandemic.

“I think it’s been hard, it’s been hard for everybody,” she said.

Mia Valley is “scratching for room” at the winery. Picture: Zoe Phillips

Pam and Norbert are now “scratching for room” to hold their wine at Mia Valley, and are hoping China’s demand returns strongly.

“We’ve got quite a bit of stock here and we’d love to send a huge shipment, but it depends what (China) wants and their market,” she said.

“How we finished with China, we’d like to commence in the same way … but we’ll take whatever we can get.”

Peter Dredge from Red Edge Wine, also in Heathcote, said he had been exporting about 30 per cent of his wine to China for about 10 years before the tariffs came in, and that he still had half a shipment that a buyer committed to pre-tariffs still sitting in a corner.

“It was pretty disappointing (when the tariffs came in) to say the least,” he said.

“We haven’t really been able to take up that slack by finding other exports markets or anything, we’ve just got a lot of wine to sell, like a lot of people.”

Producing up to 40,000 bottles of wine a year, Peter hopes return to exporting wine to China if the tariffs lift, but has questioned whether the same demand as before will still be there.

“(China) has probably found other markets, and I know the economic situation in China is certainly not what it was … so I’m not all that optimistic but we will see how we go.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he expected wine export levels to surpass the $1.1 billion in value that was present before the tariffs were introduced, while Minister for Trade and Tourism Don Farrell said he was “very confident” the interim decision would be affirmed and producers would be able to export to China by the end of March.