ProWine China toasts record numbers

ProWein’s 2014 China trade fair, the world’s leading international trade fair for wine and spirits in Shanghai, welcomed a record number of visitors to its three-day event last week.

A total of 8,250 visitors attended the show, up from 7,650 in 2013, while the total number of exhibitors attending rose by 10% to 650.

Wine and spirits producers from 38 countries – the biggest of any other wine fair in China – presented their products across 19 national and three regional pavilions which included producers from established wine regions such as France, Argentina, Italy and Spain, but also emerging regions like Moldova or Hungary.

Michael Degen, executive director at Messe Düsseldorf GmbH and director of ProWein, said: “Last year’s inaugural edition had already seen great success but ProWine China 2014 even built on this and set new benchmarks not only for wine and spirit trade fairs in China but for the general development of the Chinese wine market. Our aim is to support our customers in China in the long term and we are happy to see that our efforts start to pay off.”

ProWine China is jointly organised by the Shanghai-based Messe Düsseldorf and China International Exhibitions and held in parallel with Food & Hotel China (FHC) – China’s leading trade fair for imported foods.

Brendan Jennings, general manager of China International Exhibitions, said: “We noted many trade visitors of FHC with a special focus on wine and spirits visiting ProWine China 2014. This shows that ProWine China and FHC together form a unique platform for importers, distributors, retailers and F & B managers from all over China.”

The next ProWine China event is set to take place on 11 to 13 November 2015 in Shanghai.