Another milestone for VinExpo HK

THE Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center in Wan Chai, Hong Kong was buzzing for three days — from May 29 to 31 — during the VinExpo Asia Pacific. I was one of the over 17,500 visitors who sweated it out (the weather was very warm and humid in Hong Kong) to attend the 2018 edition. This year’s turnout saw a modest 2% increase from the last HK VinExpo in 2016, but the biannual exposition remains the undisputed leader of wine and spirits fairs in all of Asia. The success comes despite stiff competition from Prowein, the German based wine and spirits event organizer, which has done fairs in China and, more recently, in Singapore.
VinExpo actually started in 1981 in Bordeaux, France. Bordeaux is still considered by far the world’s preeminent wine-growing region. The concept from the onset was to create a wine and spirits fair in an international stage for the industry professionals — a purely trade show that connects wine and spirits producers who would be the exhibitors, to buyers and media people, who would be the visitors.
VinExpo is certainly not the oldest wine and spirits fair in the world. VinItaly, Italy’s version, actually started as early as 1967, while the London Wine Fair started in 1980, still ahead of VinExpo. The VinExpo strength however is in Asia, which began with the first staging of VinExpo Asia Pacific in Hong Kong in 1998, and biannually on even years since then, with the exception of 2004. The 1998 VinExpo HK was a pioneering fair that helped unlocked the vast potential of the liquor products in Asia. This year marked the 20^th anniversary of VinExpo in Hong Kong.
VinExpo currently runs regular wine fairs in four locations: Bordeaux, Hong Kong, New York, Tokyo (a smaller one mostly for domestic Japan) and, Paris by January 2020.
I have attended seven of the 10 VinExpo Asia Pacific events so far: six were in Hong Kong including this most recent one, and I also attended one in Tokyo, Japan in 2002. The return of VinExpo Asia Pacific to Hong Kong in 2006 (after Tokyo in 2000 and 2002, and skipping 2004), and the removal of wine duties in this former British colony in 2008 — all made Hong Kong the de facto strategic hub for VinExpo Asia-Pacific. Not to mention, the always tantalizing opportunities of Hong Kong being the window to the huge mainland China market — the country has the world’s largest population at 1.4 billion. It does help, too, that Hong Kong is probably the most accessible stopover in the entire Asia Pacific region.
RECORD BREAKING YEAR
A record breaking 1,465 exhibitors from 30 countries were recorded at this year’s VinExpo HK, of which 305 were new exhibitors. It was just six years ago in 2012 that the number of exhibitors broke the four-digit barrier. The Asia-Pacific region, which is home to over 45% of the world’s population, with almost 3.7 billion people, continues to be the part of the world where wine potential and wine consumption growth are main targets of wine suppliers. China, the main country of interest in this part of the world, is expected to be the world’s second largest wine consumer after the United States by 2021. Then there are the emerging markets, including the Philippines, as part of the growing Southeast Asian bloc, with highly populated countries like Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam all on the radar of wine producers.
This purely trade event also received visitors from around 50 countries, a few countries more than in previous VinExpos. Mainland Chinese visitors still constituted the bulk of the attendees, and even grew additional 10% from the 2016 figure. Online giant, and one of China’s most beloved companies, billionaire Jack Ma’s Alibaba was one of the major partners/sponsors of VinExpo 2018. Alibaba is offering a “new retail solution” to clients who want to connect wine and spirits customers from online to offline, and vice-versa. There were also 27 Chinese wineries in the fair that were looking for importers in the region.
AUSTRALIAN WINES TAKE CENTER STAGE
It was exactly a decade ago in 2008 when Australian wineries boycotted VinExpo Asia-Pacific. This was primarily due to the perceived shabby treatment the Australian wineries experienced at the VinExpo Bordeaux in 2007. It seemed that all has been forgotten as this year Australia was the Wine Country of Honor. Wine Australia was indeed extra visible and had far more media mileage than other wine producing countries. (Our VinExpo pass, which had to be worn at the expo, had the image of Australia and the location of its section in the convention center at the back.) Australia had 159 participating wineries, the third most in number behind only France and Italy. (France, by nature of VinExpo’s being French, had almost 500 wineries represented, and took over the entire Level 3 of the HK Convention Center.)
Wine Australia also sponsored the only official VinExpo party, the Blend — a social networking party free for all VinExpo attendees and exhibitors, featuring Australian wines. This was held in the evening of VinExpo’s Day 2 at the level 3 Grand Foyer.
This year, VinExpo Asia-Pacific seemed busier than ever, even for me. There was the usual hassle and inconvenience of waiting for a taxi during and after the fair (thank God that Uber is still in HK), long queues at the food stalls, and the sheer number of people at the event, all as expected — though it felt like it was enhanced this time. For the first time, I did not get to attend any of the several wine seminars and master classes available to visitors because of a lack of free time. I had several scheduled meetings, and everyone seemed to be in a hurry, and glancing at their watches often. Busy is good, and the wine business obviously is still on the rise. I will write more about my exploits in VinExpo including some interesting discoveries in future columns.
The author has been a member of the Federation Internationale des Journalists et Ecrivains du Vin et des Spiritueux or FIJEV since 2010. For comments, inquiries, wine event coverage, and other wine-related concerns, e-mail the author at protegeinc@yahoo.com. He is also on Twitter at twitter.com/sherwinlao.