Asia beckons for Great Southern wines

MARGARET River may be the state’s best-known wine region, but vignerons of the Great Southern have been quietly growing their international reputation, carving out a niche in the Asian market in the process.

Through hosting international wine agents and organising tours to promote the region’s wines, the Great Southern Development Commission has been instrumental in the development of markets in China and other parts of Asia.

Commission chief executive Bruce Manning believes the region holds great opportunities.

“In viticulture we are making a real push into focusing on trying to develop our export markets,” Mr Manning said, adding this can offer part of the solution to the industry’s current oversupply issues.

“We have got individual producers with long-term established relationships with Europe and northern Europe in particular, but I think the perception is China and India and other Asian markets present the most opportunity at the moment.

“I suppose in a strategic sense, the push into Asia is very timely. You see daily reports of some of the issues in Europe, and while I don’t think Asia is going to be quarantined from any of the problems that continue or further problems that arise from that, it makes logical, strategic sense to focus on Asia for our produce.” 

The commission’s recent Two City Tour aimed to educate and inform the market on produce from the Great Southern, and in turn encourage wine agents and buyers to visit the region.

Mr Manning said buyers from Taiwan, Japan, China, Hong Kong and South Korea had visited the region recently.

“It is about establishing relationships with those markets, and how you choose to go about that and investing the resources into developing those relationships. That seems to me to be key,” Mr Manning told WA Business News.

“It is about either travelling to the market or bringing people here. We have done more of the latter than the former to date, but it is about getting people in, giving them a whole experience of the region, the quality of our wine and food, the clean green image, and giving some considered time for these buyers with the individual producers. 

“That is the sort of thing that leads to the development of rapport and the relationship.”

Mr Manning referred to wine agents visiting the region as ‘inward buyers’ and said they were intensely interested in learning about the people producing the wine and the amount of effort that goes into its production.

“There is a whole focus now from people purchasing wine knowing the quality of the supply chain behind it; the quality in terms of where the wine comes from, who the wine maker is, the whole story,” Mr Manning said.

Galafrey was one of the first wineries to establish in the Mount Barker area, and has been exporting to Japan for the past 15 years in addition to its trade with Europe, including Denmark and the Netherlands, the US and China.

Galafrey general manager Linda Tyrer said the business was first approached by a wine buyer from Japan as part of a touring group and Galafrey started exporting small orders to that country three to four times a year.

Initially the orders were for the winery’s mid range wines, but that has changed over the years. After changing buyers and agents several times, the business now has strong demand for its premium range in China.

Mr Manning said the Great Southern region’s profile was improving with the commission’s work, and he had seen a distinct increase in exports during the past 12-24 months.

“I would say we are not as well known as other regions, one other region in particular, but that is the reason we are investing resources at the commission to try and build the knowledge of our region,” he said.

 “Part of our effort is about that, taking people, inward buyers, on a voyage of discovery. The fundamentals of this region are as good or better than anywhere else – the superb scenery, the ocean, the fact that we stay green longer than other regions by virtue of the consistency of our rainfall.”