Catalan wineries aim at Chinese market to overcome crisis

From http://www.lavanguardia.com/ocio/20130515/54374110984/bodegueros-catalanes-china-exterior-crisis.html (in Spanish)

Catalan wine producers are increasingly looking abroad to try to overcome the crisis and they are specially aiming at the Chinese market and other markets outside of Europe, according to Núria Ruiz, export manager of the Associació Vinícola Catalana (Catalan Wine Association), an organization that represents 90% of the bottled wine produced in Catalonia.

Núria Ruiz has explained that 70 Catalan wineries are currently taking part in the promotion actions organized by the Associació Vinícola Catalana to promote their products outside of European Union. The requirements for the wineries to be eligible for these promotion actions are to have their headquarters in Catalonia, to sell wines and cava wines with a Catalan controlled designation of origin, to have retail prices from 15 US dollars and to have received at least 89 points in Robert Parker's Wine Advocate or at least 90 points in other prestigious national and/or international wine guides.

Núria Ruiz also explains that because of the crisis and the decrease of consumption in Spain, there is a growing interest to export abroad. 25 Catalan wineries are already working together to promote their products in the Food & Hotel 2013 trade fair (2013上海国际食品饮料及餐饮设备展览会) in Shanghai in November 2013, that will include the ProWine China 2013 fair (2013上海国际葡萄酒展). There they will try to reach commercial agreements with wine distributors and representatives of supermarkets in order to reach the final consumer through the most direct way.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Grapes in a vine, Tarragona province (September 2012)[/caption]