ROMÂNIA-CHINA "Jidvei" on the Chinese market

The company's interest in China began in 2009, when, following the expansion of the vineyards, we realized that we needed to also find foreign markets, because the domestic one wasn't going to be enough to absorb our entire output, said Mrs. Ioana Anghel, PR Manager of Jidvei România. She went on to say: "The economic crisis and the fact that in Europe, many countries have a winemaking tradition, have caused us to turn to the Chinese market, which offered the biggest opportunities for growth, as it is still in its early stages. At the end of 2009 we have also begun a project to promote the DOC Jidvei wines in China, a project co-financed by the European Union, the Romanian government and our company. It was a decisive aspect in our involvement on this market: the presence in fairs and other specialized events, the contact with people in the wine industry (both retailers and importers, as well as journalists, wine waiters, wine tasters) have shown us the huge handicap which every winemaker in Romania starts with when going abroad: the lack of advertising for our country as one having tradition in the making of wine and one which can constantly produce large volumes of high quality wines".

For that reason, together with a Chinese partner, "Jidvei" has set up a company which would handle the export of the wines of the company in China, headquartered in Ningbo (in the Zhejiang province), quite close to Shanghai. Mrs. Ioana Anghel said: "In doing so, we have taken the first step and we have made it possible for those who are interested to buy small quantities of wine to test the market. Unfortunately, the formalities for obtaining the import license, and for the approval of the labels in China took a rather long time, so the first five containers were only ready to sell in the beginning of 2011. Since then, things have improved, we have already begun understanding the mechanisms of the market over there, which is rather atypical due to the size of China, as well as due to the huge economic and cultural differences between the southern, northern, western and eastern areas of the country.

The initial export offered us a rather large inventory, meaning that in 2011 we only sent to China a new container, with the varieties of wine which sold best. This posed a problem as well, because the preferences varied from one area to the next, and besides, we are makers of white wine, but in China, due to the heavy advertising of the French, red wine accounts for approximately 80% of the sales.

We didn't lose hope however, but we tried to preserve the idea that still, white wine is rising, as the market becomes increasingly more educated when it comes to wine. We have advertised the Jidvei wines, but at the same time, we have promoted Romania and we tried to emphasize what makes our country so adequate for making wine. We managed to find certain niches in South-East China where the year-long high temperatures and the diet based on seafood are a good fit for white wine".

• "Romania the country of wine" at the Romanian Embassy in Beijing

At the end of April 2012, the Romanian Embassy in Beijing hosted a seminar intended to promote Romanian wines, organized by the Economic and Trade Promotion Office of the Embassy, in cooperation with the Commercial Promotion Office of the Ministry of Trade of the People's Republic of China. Six Romanian companies attended the WINECHINA 2012 International Fair held in the capital of China: JIDVEI, MURFATLAR, SENATOR WINE, SC VITIPOMICOLA SAMBURESTI, NAZARCEA, as well as J & C International Trading Shanghai, a company with fully Romanian equity, which is one of the distributors of the Romanian wines on the local market. In the beginning opening of the seminar, the Romanian ambassador H.E. Mr. Doru Costea made a short presentation of the historical traditions of the vine growing and the making of Romanian wines and has praised the inroads made in China by the Romanian winemakers over the last few years.

In 2011, Romanian wine exports to the People's Republic of China amounted to approximately USD 3 million, compared to USD 700,000 in 2009.