China-Australia relations: plunging wine exports don’t ‘spell doom and gloom’, but new markets crucial

Total cost of China’s anti-dumping measures to Australia could reach A$2.4 billion (US$1.77 billion) over five-year period, new research finds

Australia’s industry bodies must find alternative destinations for wine that is not going to China amid protectionist duties, agricultural research arm says

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New research shows that Australia has a lot of work to do in finding alternative destinations for its wine that is no longer going to China amid protectionist duties. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 4:30am, 28 Jul 2021Updated: 4:57am, 28 Jul 2021

Only 60 per cent of Australia’s lost wine exports to China will be redirected to existing markets by 2025 unless Australia expends more effort into finding new markets, new research has shown.

And the potential losses by then could be in the billions.

Australian exporters will need to brace for the end of the bottled-wine trade with China as further modelling from Australia’s agricultural research arm, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (Abares) indicates China’s new anti-dumping duties will “cause China’s imports of bottled wine from Australia to cease entirely”.

The protectionist duties of between 116.2 per cent and 218.4 per cent, which were formalised in March, make Australian wines more expensive to Chinese buyers.

“We expect that only 60 per cent of wine destined for China will find a place in our other existing markets by 2025, unless we make the effort to find alternative markets or do things differently,” Abares executive director Jared Greenville said.