The wine industry, which has been weak, finally shows signs of bottoming out in 2023.

2022 is considered to be the most difficult year for the China’s wine industry, with public data showing that the overall data of both imported and domestic wine hit bottom again. But recently, with the gradual recovery of the domestic consumption, the wine market has recovered to the scene of “peak season” during Spring Festival period, the industry also believes that the weak wine industry is expected to turn to recovery this year.

"The Spring Festival market had a good rebound." Speaking about recent changes in his business, Li Zhiwei, a small wine importer in Beijing, said 2022 was the most difficult year for him in his career. His business was 60 percent lower than in 2019, making it "very difficult" to do business.

Many wine merchants surveyed said that in 2022, corporate activities and parties decreased significantly under the epidemic situation. Even the sales volume in the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day peak season generally decreased by more than 35-4% compared to the previous year. Although the Spring Festival market recovered significantly, the annual sales were still worse than that in 2021.

Statistics shows the imported wine market also had a dismal 2022.

The latest customs data showed that the total amount of wine imported for the whole year of 2022 was 340 million liters, down 21.1% year on year, and the value of imports was 9.6 billion yuan, down 12.5%, both lowest in recent years, compared with the peak of wine imports in 2017.

It was a similar story for domestic wine, with the country producing 180,000 kiloliters in the January-November period of 2022, down 32.1 % year on year. Data for December 2022 has not yet been released.

Most wine merchants said that there are signs of a rebound in wine sales at the end of the year, especially the apparent recovery of the group purchase market, so they are more optimistic about this year's wine business prospects. According to media reports, some foreign wine producers have also started to plan road shows and marketing activities in China for 2023.