CHINA IS NOT ALONE, THE COUNTRIES OF THE ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS, 550 MILLION CONSUMERS FROM THE PHILIPPINES TO VIETNAM, ARE LEARNING TO KNOW AND APPRECIATE WINE

When considering the future of the wine trade, the road leads to China, now a world-wide economic power and ready to become, in the next few years, the number one country for wine consumption. But, if we expand our horizons beyond the populous Asian country, we realize there is an almost unexplored territory that deserves more of our attention.
They are the countries of the political, economic and cultural organization founded in 1967, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), comprising the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, for a community of 550 million people and a per capita GDP of 23 thousand 780 US dollars. It is a potentially boundless market, almost twice as big as the US, also for wine.
Of course, there is a lot of work to do, but there are some positive aspects to start out with. Despite the economic crisis, the entire Region has accomplished a lot in the past few years, growing 5% a year, and even wine, which is still little known and little drunk, follows the other sectors, revealed the analysis by "AVCO", the firm for the internationalization of Spanish companies (www.avco.legal).
In the Philippines, despite a still very high tax burden, consumption has grown 60% over the past few years, at a rate that according to estimates will reach + 40% annually by 2020. Wine sales will exceed 300 million euros in turnover in 2018, with red wines being the preferred type, and since Australia, like China, can count on geographic proximity, the big European companies will certainly not stand by on the side lines and just watch.
And, neither will they just stand by and watch the extraordinary growth of Malaysia, which unlike the Philippines can already count on a certain level of well-being, not only of the wealthier classes, but also of the middle class, which is particularly young and dynamic.
The negative aspect here is the social structure of the country, as the majority of Malaysians are of Muslim religion, which obviously limits the consumption of alcohol and, therefore, wine. However, private wine consumption continues to grow and should be confirmed, even for the next few years, at 6%. This is where European producers, especially French and Italian, though not so much Spanish, are focusing the most.
The situation in Thailand is unusual. It is a wine producing country, which, however, exports almost all of its production to the neighboring Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, so domestic consumption is linked to imports from France, Australia, the USA, Chile, South Africa and Italy. Finally, one of the markets that needs to be watched and has been around for some time, is Vietnam. It also is one of the biggest obstacles for exporting countries because of its sort of “duopoly” of France and Chile that together account for 75% of all wine exports to Vietnam.