Yang Menghan, chief reporter of Huaxia Wine News
The industry believes that the characteristics of fermented fruit wine with low alcohol, sweet and sour taste are more favored by young people, coupled with the current rise of low-trend international alcohol drinking, the characteristics of fruit wine just fit with it...
In the nearly 1,000 billion annual alcohol consumption market, who are the most promising "potential stocks"?
"If you want to choose the alcohol industry that is most suitable for young consumption habits and has the most growth potential, then fruit wine is definitely one of them, and we are also vigorously promoting its standardization and formalization." Huo Xingsan, secretary general of the Fruit Wine Development Professional Committee of the China Liquor Association, said.
It is reported that the number of enterprises above the scale of the mainland fruit wine industry is relatively small, there are currently less than 100, but its development momentum is rapid, showing a strong growth force. According to relevant statistics, fruit wine in the first half of 2022 had the fastest year-on-year growth rate, with sales increasing by more than 77% compared with last year.
From the production side, the expanding market has attracted many enterprises to join; But from the consumer side, a wide range of products dazzle consumers and have no choice.
"In recent years, the association has been vigorously promoting the certification of fruit wine enterprises, comprehensively investigating and certifying the planting base and production quality management level of the enterprise's brewing raw materials, ensuring the standardization of the industry, making consumers' choices simpler and the market more transparent." Huoxingsan said that it is necessary to bring this fast-growing industry into orbit and develop healthily.
Chiyu Liquor passed the "Specialty Fruit Wine" certification
In March this year, Shaanxi Qianyu Liquor Co., Ltd. submitted an application for fruit wine certification, and an expert group organized by the Fruit Wine Development Professional Committee of China Wine Industry Association immediately went to Meixian, Shaanxi Province for on-site certification.
The expert group this time is composed of full-time staff of the Fruit Wine Development Professional Committee of China Liquor Association, relevant experts from the Brewing Department of Tianjin Academy of Agricultural Sciences and China Food Fermentation Institute, and media review experts of Huaxia Wine News.
Xin Lei, general manager of Shaanxi Qianyu Wine Industry Co., Ltd., introduced that the enterprise was established in 2012, settled in the national kiwifruit industrial park in 2014, covering an area of 50 acres, investing 150 million yuan, relying on the status of the hometown of kiwifruit in Meixian and developing the characteristic fruit wine industry based on kiwifruit fruit wine, and now there are more than ten kinds of characteristic fruit wine products such as kiwifruit, apples, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, rose fruit wine, etc.
"In the supply of raw materials, we adopt the model of 'company + base + farmer'." Xin Lei said that Meixian is located in the core area of the Qinling kiwifruit industry demonstration belt in Shaanxi, with more than 300,000 mu of kiwifruit planting area, Qianyu Liquor Industry in addition to directly operated planting bases, but also directly signed contracts with fruit cooperatives and fruit farmers, forming a stable raw material supply system.
At present, Qianyu Liquor Industry's special fruit wine products based on kiwi wine are exported to Fujian and Guangdong, providing an important development direction for the deep processing of kiwifruit industry in Meixian.
During the on-site audit on March 21, the members of the expert group visited the Qianyu Liquor Direct Planting Base and the Meixian Kiwifruit Demonstration Base, and recognized the achievements of the development of kiwifruit characteristic industries in the region.
According to the audit process stipulated in the on-site audit guidelines, after visiting the planting base, the expert group successively inspected the production fermentation workshop and storage equipment of Qianyu Liquor, and evaluated and scored finished products including kiwi fruit wine, raspberry cider, rose fruit wine, etc., and reviewed all aspects of the situation.
After a series of audit procedures, Huoxingsan announced that Qianyu Liquor Co., Ltd. has complete relevant qualifications, stable raw material supply, and strong management level and guarantee ability. Based on the opinions of various experts, it is believed that its products meet the relevant requirements of specialty fruit wines and passed the on-site audit.
Sunrise industry towards standardization
"Fruit wine belongs to traditional wines with a long history, but at the same time it is a young sunrise industry, and the low alcohol content and high palatability of fruit wine products are very suitable for today's young and trendy consumer needs." Huoxingsan said that China's fruit wine industry has strong regional characteristics, and how to make it come out to adapt to the large market is an urgent problem to be solved.
Since August 2018, the China Liquor Association has launched the certification of "Specialty Fruit Wine".
According to the declaration requirements of "characteristic fruit wine" of the Fruit Wine Development Professional Committee of China Wine Industry Association, enterprises need to have complete qualifications; Have a stable and controllable large-scale raw material base; The production and sales history of products has reached more than 5 years; The product quality is stable and typical; The product brand has a certain social popularity and market recognition. The audit is divided into two steps: preliminary review of declaration materials and on-site audit, and enterprises that pass the preliminary examination can enter the on-site audit stage.
In the year the certification was launched, a total of 10 companies passed the audit.
The certification of "special fruit wine" has effectively promoted the formalization of the industry and allowed many fruit wine enterprises to be recognized by the market.
According to reports, at present, the Fruit Wine Development Professional Committee of the China Liquor Industry Association is vigorously promoting standardization work, such as launching the drafting of the group standard of "Osmanthus Wine" in 2022, and participating in the drafting of "Green Plum Wine" and "Hawthorn Wine".
Relevant experts believe that in view of the characteristics of many types of fruit cultivation in mainland China, uneven distribution and small planting scale of each species, the current fruit wine industry is often limited to specific regions, resulting in a lower awareness of the fruit wine industry than other categories, which is a reality that cannot be ignored.
On the other hand, cider consumption is growing rapidly. According to the 2022 Jingdong 618 promotion data, fruit wine has become the first choice of consumers, and the turnover of fruit wine has increased by 25 times year-on-year in the first 2 minutes. The fruit wine industry presents a development trend of "100 brand competition" and "market increment from first-tier cities to second-, third-, fourth- and fifth-tier cities".
Does aligning with wine affect cider specialization?
A sample survey in 2021 showed that the estimated market share of fruit wine (including liqueurs) was about 8 billion.
"At present, the fruit wine industry is still a niche industry, except for the scattered industrial distribution, its consumption base is small." Some insiders said that at present, the fruit wine industry has the problem of small scale and industrial standards that need to be improved.
Compared with the liquor industry's production capacity of thousands of tons and tens of thousands of tons, the fruit wine industry often only has a volume of 100 tons and 1,000 tons.
"This is determined by the consumption base, and the current mainstream of consumption is still baijiu." Industry insiders said that liquor is still an important carrier of etiquette and socialization, but with the emergence of the younger generation of consumer groups, fruit wine has ushered in new development opportunities.
The industry believes that the characteristics of fermented fruit wine with low alcohol, sweet and sour taste are more favored by young people, and the current international low-trend wine is rising, and the characteristics of fruit wine coincide with it.
At the same time, the fruit wine industry also has problems such as unclear production standards.
Guo Yiru, an expert in wine at the Tianjin Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said: "The fermentation and production of fruit wine is difficult to control, and there is a high technical threshold to produce high-quality fruit wine products. ”
It is understood that at present, many domestic fruit wine enterprises refer to wine in production, and it is difficult to improve according to their own raw material characteristics, which is also an important reason for the China Wine Industry Association to promote the group standards of various categories of fruit wine.
The "14th Five-Year Plan Development Guiding Opinions on China's Wine Industry" pointed out that the quality stability of fruit wine still needs to be further overcome, and it is necessary to focus on breaking through a number of major common key technologies, mainly including the construction of large-scale raw material bases, and the improvement of technical specifications for varieties, planting, harvesting and processing processes; Develop antioxidant-based fruit wine flavor loss control technology to enhance the sensory flavor stabilization of fruit wine.
The construction of fruit wine standard system and the construction of fruit wine culture system will be an important driving force for the future fruit wine industry, China Wine Industry Association will promote the construction of fruit wine industry science and technology innovation platform, give full play to the role of China fruit wine research institute, strengthen international exchanges, tap the essence of traditional culture, inject nutrition and health concepts, build a fruit wine industry scientific and technological talent team, carry out fruit wine standard system construction and fruit wine culture system construction.