Xiamen aims to become China’s biggest wine import city

China’s coastal city Xiamen in Fujian province has opened a sprawling 5,900-square-metre wine trade centre, which it hopes will allow the city to become the largest trading centre for imported wines in China within five years.

Located in the Xiamen area of the China (Fujian) Pilot Free Trade Zone, the Xiamen International Wine Exchange (XIWE), is designed to bulk up the region’s imported wine capacity, especially for medium and high-end wines, reported China Daily.

Built with wine exhibition, trading, tasting and training facilities, the centre will enjoy preferential support from the Free Trade Zone on finance, e-commerce and customs clearance, according to Lin Shuxi, an official with the FTZ’s administrative centre.

Currently ranked as China’s third largest trading hub for wine, Xiamen was one of the first ports in China to begin importing wines. In the first six months of the year, wines worth US$47 million were shipped to the coastal city, the majority French, reported Xiamen Daily.

In addition to wine, the city is also the largest importer of beer in the country, processing 108 million litres of imported beer in the first half of 2017 alone, according to government statistics.