half of this year, Spanish wine imports in China were up 40.3% by volume to around 1.59 million litres and 43.8% by value to more than US$48.7 million (£30.5 million).As a result, Spain confirmed its position as the third largest exporter of bottled wines to China, following France and Australia, according to the latest figures published by the Chinese Duties and Excise authorities.
Meanwhile, an agreement aimed at increasing cooperation in wine trade between China and Spain was signed by the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture and the Chinese General Administration of Quality Supervision last month, according to ChinaIRN.com.
One of the main purposes of the agreement was to further promote Spanish wine exports to China.
The agreement comes as reassuring news to Spanish wine exporters, as earlier this year the Chinese Government opened an investigation into the European wine producing sector with the intention of imposing a punitive tax on exporters if necessary.
The chinese said at the time that they suspected EU producers of entering their market using illegal trading strategies such as "dumping" for subsidies.
Last year, Spain exported €89 million worth of wine to China, who are the 5th largest wine consumer in the world.
