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From VOA Learning English, |
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this is the Economics Report. |
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American wine producers are hoping |
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to increase their sales in China, |
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where the country's growing middle class |
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is drinking wine. |
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The United States exported just $74 million |
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in wine to China last year, |
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but exports are growing at a rate of nearly 20 percent a year. |
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Two years ago, former basketball star Yao Ming |
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launched a wine company called Yao Family Wines. |
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It is based in California's Napa Valley, |
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one of the top wine producing areas in the world. |
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Tom Hinde is with Yao Family Wines. |
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"We've made five vintages together. |
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Actually, we're working on the 2013 right here. |
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You can see that these grapes will be ripe sometime this fall, |
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and we get to do it all over again." |
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Yao Family Wines is a small winery that produces a costly product. |
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Tom Hinde says the vineyard grows only Cabernet Sauvignon grapes |
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because many people in China like red wine. |
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The winery's top cabernet sells for $625 a bottle. |
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Many moderately priced wines are exported to China, |
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they including some from the San Antonio Winery in Los Angeles. |
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Fifteen percent of its production goes to China. |
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The Wine Institute represents more than 1,000 wineries |
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and allied businesses through California. |
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Linsey Gallagher of The Wine Institute says |
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her group is always receiving request from China. |
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But she says the country is a problem for marketing. |
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"They know a lot of the aspirational, iconic things about California, |
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whether that's Hollywood in Southern California |
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or the Golden Gate Bridge in Northern California |
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or our previous governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger. |
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By and large, they have no idea that California |
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is the fourth largest wine producing region in the world |
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and makes great quality wines at all price points." |
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Winemakers hope to expand the market for fine dry wines, |
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including white wines, |
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which are now a small part of the Chinese market. |
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Adam Beak of Bank of the West works with California winemakers. |
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He knows they are competing with European companies, |
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some of which entered the Chinese market many years ago. |
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"And they've developed a brand there. |
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They've developed a name, |
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especially for the French companies on the fine wine side, |
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they're developed a real strong market presence. |
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The U.S. is still in its infancy. " |
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But China's middle class is growing fast, |
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Tom Hinde of Yao Family Wines is hopeful |
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that more Chinese will develop a taste for imported wine. |
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"They'll want to drive certain cars, |
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and they'll want to live in certain types of apartments and houses, |
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and they'll want to wear certain clothes and enjoy certain types of wines." |
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And he hopes many of those wines will come from California. |
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And that's the Economics Report from VOA Learning English, |
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I'm Kelly Jean Kelly. |
