Red Farm toasts bright future in wine market

RABAT - As Chinese consumers constantly seek high-quality imported goods, the China International Import Expo is a rare opportunity for Moroccan companies interested in expanding their exports, said Mamoun Sayah, general manager of agricultural company Red Farm.

Confirming that Red Farm will attend the second CIIE, which is scheduled for early November in Shanghai, Sayah said the participation "will expand the popularity of their winery in China and help develop the brand image of Red Farm wine in the Chinese market".

The company participated in the first CIIE last year and introduced its wines from the small Moroccan town of Rommani.

"After participating in the expo, our winery received a lot of cooperation offers," Sayah said. "After rounds of visits and negotiations, we finally signed an agreement with a Chinese distributor to sell our wines in the Chinese market."

Impressed at the first CIIE, Sayah said his company enjoyed "a beautiful stand", which was in "an ideal place at the entrance of the exhibition".

"People were asking for explanations about our different wines," he added.

Among the first bottles shipped to China were some white wines called Penelope. It is a new product developed by the winery this year, which has a soft and sweet taste, Sayah revealed.

"This wine is currently not available in Morocco and Chinese guests will be the first consumers to taste Penelope," he noted.

Red Farm has more than 300 hectares of vineyards and produces 3 million bottles of wine annually. Its chief winemaker, Jacques Poulain, said that after years of hard work, the winery was authorized to call itself "Chateau Red Farm" in 2019.

Poulain explained that the word "chateau" was given to wineries that have achieved a high standard in both production capabilities and wine quality.

Valuing the huge consumer market in China, Sayah said that his winery has a lot of room for growth in the Chinese market. The initial feedback from their Chinese distributor is positive.

"The first container of Red Farm wine arrived in Shanghai in early October. Our Chinese partners are now dealing with the process of customs clearance," Sayah noted.

Statistics from the General Administration of Customs show that wine worth 2.86 billion yuan ($404.38 million) was imported. This accounted for nearly half of the total liquor and alcoholic beverages imported into China last year.

Imported wine tops all liquor and alcoholic beverages imported last year, said Chen Ping, from the department of market operation at China's Ministry of Commerce, earlier this month.

Total wine consumption reached 1.8 million kiloliters in China last year. This made it the fifth-largest wine consumer in the world, Chen said.

"In recent years, with the deepening of structural reform and changes in people's consumption structure, wine has entered daily life and is not just for business occasions," Chen said.