(Feb 27, 2021, Shanghai) – The General Administration of Customs has released a list of food and cosmetics goods that were refused entry to China in January 2021.
Several shipments of Australian wines were on the list, including two loads of the well-known Penfolds brand. Customs at Shenzhen detained 2018 Penfolds Bin128 Syrah and Penfolds Bin28 Syrah from the same vintage. Imports from Badger’s Brook Winery, a winery in the renowned Yarra Valley, were held at Chongqing. Customs also denied entry of four tons of wine of Ladbroke Grove Wines from Australia because of the “contaminated corks”.
The detained Australian wine volume totals up to 23,229 kilograms. The reason for the detention was cited as “unqualified labels”.
Since Beijing’s imposition of temporary tariffs last November, wine imports from Australia to mainland China have plummeted.
The sharp decline in export volumes and value in the final two months of the year saw the overall value for 2020 decline by 14 percent to $1.01 billion and volume drop by 29 percent to 96 million liters.
In the year to December 2020, the value of wine exported in glass bottles (the subject of temporary tariffs imposed by China in November 2020) decreased by five percent to $2.3 billion while volume decreased by nine percent to 311 million liters.
“It is expected that exports to China will remain low in the coming months affecting total export numbers during 2021,” Wine Australia CEO Andreas Clark said.
According to the regulations, the detained goods will either be returned to the senders or be destroyed locally.
