According to the customs data, China's import volume of grape wine packaged within two liters amounted to 6,389,439 boxes (9 liters per box) in 2008. Compared with the growth rate of 100 percent in 2006 and 2007.
The 36 percent growth rate in 2008 showed that the tendency towards importing grape wine began to slow down.

Divide 2008 into two parts. The growth rate in early half of 2008 reached 50% while the whole year's growth rate was only 36%. These statistics presents us a fact that the wine import is greatly affected by the global financial crisis.

Meanwhile, the data indicates that the import volume of bulking wine (packaged in 2 liters plus) has been considerably stable, with slight fluctuation between 90,000 to 100,000 tons. However, changes in the exchange rate and cost widened the variation of bulking wine suppliers every year. The "star" in 2008 was the Argentina bulking wine for its low cost.

Reasons for the low growth rate of bulking wine import could be stated as follows: due to the increased supply of domestic high-quality grapes and increased output of domestic grape wine, manufacturers would use less imported bulking wine in order to save cost.

In fact, the actual output of domestic grape wine is always unclear because some enterprises are not willing to tell public its actual output and may classify those kinds of wine which do not realize the GB standard of 100 percent grape juice as grape wine. However, there is no doubt that the output of domestic grape wine have been on the rise these years.

In addition, as domestic consumers know more about the imported grape wine, some sales entities newly emerging, such as the wine exclusive store and chain store, begin to change the old structure. For example, some kinds of wine were sold at a high price under the smooth economic environment in the past. But now, the attack of global crisis makes people switch their pursuit to better yet cheaper wine.

Nowadays, the imported grape wine is characterized with symbol of status and culture which other kinds of wine cannot represent. More and more wine clubs and stores emerge and take an advantageous position, challenging business of retail stores and even restaurants.

As for product, amontillado will become a new growth point of wine import in future. Since consumers' taste becomes more mature and wide, amontillado begins to prevail on domestic market.