WOSA WORLD

WOSA AT Vinexpo Asia-Pacific

25 June 2014

WOSA again organised a South African pavilion at Vinexpo Asia-Pacific, which was held in Hong Kong from 27–29 May 2014.  In order to showcase the quality and versatility of wines South Africa has to offer we put together a range of themed tastings, which was presented from the WOSA information counter stand over the three days of the fair.

In general, South African wines were well received and it was interesting to note that visitors were interested in both white and red wine, and that MCC and  Chenin Blanc were in high demand. There was a steady flow of visitors on all three days of the show, including potential importers, restaurant owners and entrepreneurs investigating prospects in the wine industry. The themed tastings were a fantastic draw card to the pavilion and received a lot of positive feedback. As one visitor to the stand summed it up: “There are not many South African wines in Hong Kong and it has been an eye-opener to taste so many high quality South African wines in one place.”

Another highlight was a series of three seminars hosted under the umbrella of “the Beautiful South” collaboration (South Africa, Chile, and Argentina), presented by three well-known wine personalities. The seminars were very popular and each one was fully booked. See the blog at http://www.wosa.co.za/wosa_world_article.php?id=1915

Vinexpo is a trade-only show and this year 1 300 exhibitors from 34 countries exhibited, attracting 16 778 visitors over three days (an increase of 6,3% compared to the 2012 event). Though I was surprised by the increase in size of the exhibition and visitor numbers in a time of slow-down, especially in the mainland Chinese market compared to 2012, it does point to the expanding demand in the market. Although 40% of the fair’s visitors were from Hong Kong, with a further 5 898 coming over from mainland China, there was a particularly marked increase in attendance from Thailand (+26.3%), Vietnam (+25.2%), Indonesia (+19.3%), and Malaysia (+15.5%). It was also good to see visitors from Taiwan (+10.6%), Japan (+6.3%) and Singapore (+20.5%).

– Michaela Stander

Market Manager: Asia

June 2014