I was reading in the Chinese press about the success of exporting wine from Washington State to China. Lets read:
As the nation's second largest premium wine producer after California, Washington wine exports to China totaled an estimated 14,051 cases in 2012-13, a 175 percent increase from 2008-09, when exports to the market were 5,094 cases, according to Seattle-based Washington State Wine Commission.
Hmmm... let’s jump into the raw trade data and get some hard facts:
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| Source: USITC.gov / John Wiley Spiers analysis |
175% for Washington wines is well below par performance of wine exporters from USA to China, and only about half of the growth into Hong Kong. So actually, Washington performance quite bad. How come? Tactics, tools and attitude. Let’s observe comments a Washington Vintner:
"Our hope was to try to find more regional distribution," said Carter, adding that the other goals for his trip were to teach buyers and the press about Washington State and it's wines as well as do a little self-educating about the China market.
Sales is a matter of hope? It is not a process that yields results? “Regional distribution” sounds very MBA-ish. How about the point of the trip is to “sell wine”? With a billion people, what will talking to several dozen, even several hundred, accomplish as far as teaching buyers and the press? And is one in the wine business to teach, or to sell wine? At the wine shows there are booths dedicated to promoting programs teaching about wine. Leave teaching to the teachers. And why bother learning anything about the Chinese market? The Chinese market is for the Chinese to worry about. One is in the wine business to sell the wine one makes. Let Chinese importers worry about selling into China. The job is to find the right wine importers in China.
Carter's winery has so far shipped three orders to China. "One was not a Brian Carter Cellars label but a custom project. The other two were within the last year with our current importer GIYA," Carter said.
"China is our most successful and promising export market at this time," he added.
Three orders in two years is the most successful and promising market? How long can one sustain this level of success? At what cost came the two brand orders and one non-brand? Let’s check Giya out:
促进中美红酒文化交流，搭建中美红酒贸易桥梁!
To Promote Chinese and US Wine Cultural Exchange. To Build Trade Bridges between China and US!
Anyone see a problem here? No wonder there have been only three orders. P O P Q U I Z for my ag export students: critique this sales site. I'll respond. And looking around the site, wait, what?
GIYA International Trading L.L.C. is a US registered import and export company based out of Seattle, Washington
Their current customer in China is a Seattle business? Sigh....
My guess is these were very small orders, which is the right way to build market, although the tactic seems by default. And who knows if any of the three sales were profitable. Assuming the vintner has come upon the right MOQ FOB tactic, the attitude associated strikes me as counter productive.
I was listening to another fellow at an export ag conference yesterday, and he made the point by his services "we save people time and money." Exactly. People would be successful anyway, advising others just saves them time and money. The problem is if people knock themselves out doing everything except selling before they get to "success."
About 14 wineries from Washington State showcased their vintages to more than 7,000 trade visitors at the Shanghai fair, all hoping to increase awareness of Washington State wines and build relationships with key importers and buyers in China.
Not write orders?
Steve Griessel, owner of Washington-based Betz Family Winery, said the event was productive. "We were able to meet many excellent wholesalers and we were excited about the reception our wines received," Griessel said.
Did you write orders?
"Education is essential," she said. "Many Chinese buyers and certainly consumers are not aware of Washington State wine. The more we can increase awareness of the high-quality, critically acclaimed wines from Washington, our unique territory and the stories of the dedicated, down-to-earth people who make our wines, the more success we will see in the Chinese market."
That is a hypothesis, easily testable. I can pretty much assure the outcome if the hypothesis were to be tested: nonsense.
One can arrive at sub-par performance at a lost less expense. And one can also find paying customers at a lot less expense. It is called sales.
Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.
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