China to become full member of OIV

Member countries of the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) are reviewing China’s application to become a full member of the organisation.

China is expected to become the OIV’s 51st official member country in November at the organisation’s 100th anniversary celebration conference.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has formally submitted an application to join the OIV through the Chinese Embassy in France, it was revealed at a press conference in Ningxia on 11 July.

Full member status will give China the power to influence international standards and regulations on wine production and consumption.

According to Vino Joy, the application is officially under review by member countries. Seven countries in Asia — Armenia, Lebanon, Israel, India, Russia, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan — are already member states of the organisation. Three African nations, six countries in the Americas, 32 in Europe and two in Oceania are also full members of the OIV.

To join the OIV, the government of the interested State must send the request of adhesion through its Embassy in Paris to the Director General of the OIV, with a copy of this request to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Once informed of the application, member states have six months to inform the organisation of their opinion. An application is accepted if the majority of member states do not oppose it.

China is the 9th largest wine consumer in the world, at 6.3 million hectoliters. It also has the third-largest area under vine of any country in the world (756,000 hectares), behind Spain and France.

The OIV permits some territories and organisations to participate in OIV activities as observers, as per its international treaty of 3 April 2001.

China’s Yantai prefecture, in the Shandong province, is one of these observer organisations, as is the autonomous Ningxia region, a significant wine-producing region in the central-north of China home to the Helan Mountains.