FRENCH WINE MAKER LOOK AT ASIAN MARKETS

Faced with a stalling China market, French winemakers are working to entice a growing middle class in Asia away from spirits and beer -- but face big obstacles in doing so. Chinese wine shipments and consumption fell for the first time in a decade in 2013. The drop comes as Beijing reins in luxury spending and extravagant banquets, against the backdrop of a slower economy, and an anti-graft campaign backed by President Xi Jinping to root out official corruption. Winemakers and industry executives say that while the slowdown will not prevent people from drinking, the focus may now shift to mid-range wine and spirits. In its 2014 outlook, trade body the Federation des Exportateurs de Vins & Spiritueux de France (FEVS) warned that the country's global 7.6 billion euro (USD 10.3 billion) wine export industry needed to gain market share in places where a new middle class was expanding. "The growth of our exports depend on the opening of new markets: India, Vietnam, Thailand," it said. While "China remains the main engine of growth, the perspectives of new consumers" in Asia are increasingly important, said Guillaume Deglise, CEO of Vinexpo, which this week staged Asia's largest annual gathering of global wine and spirit producers and merchants held in Hong Kong. To capture new markets, winemakers need to navigate Asia's "great diversity of cultures, religions, climates and consumption patterns," said Gautier Salinier, sales manager in Asia for the Plaimont cooperative of wine producers based in Southwest France. India perhaps offers the greatest potential but also the biggest obstacles. Wine consumption among its 1.2 billion population is expected to grow 30 per cent by 2016, according to export agency Ubifrance.