International wine expo ends in Yantai

The 13th Yantai International Wine Exposition was held in Yantai city of Shandong province from June 16 to 18 .

A key platform for exchanges between industry players and a driver of development of Yantai's wine industry, the expo this year was themed "Brand, Culture and Cooperation", and consisted of one exhibition, eight themed activities and multiple sub-venue events.

Key events included an opening ceremony, the World Wine Industry Conference, the 2023 China (Yantai) Exhibition Industry Development Conference, the China Grape Wine Industrial Chain Cooperation Conference as well as competitions and seminars.

An array of activities including forums, exhibitions and wine-tasting activities were also held in Yaitai's Zhifu, Laishan, Penglai districts and Huangbohai New Area respectively.

Covering a total exhibition area of 21,000 square meters, the expo consisted of a vineyard boutique hall, an area for an internationally renowned brands and a grape wine industrial chain hall that had about 1,000 standard booths - a record in terms of the scale and the number of participating companies. The number of visitors totaled 31,200 and value of intended deals amounted to 620 million yuan ($86.17 million), up 16.98 percent year-on-year.

Guests included Jiang Zengwei, former chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, Zhang Zhigang, former deputy minister of the Ministry of Commerce, Jose Antonio Vidal, president of the Global Wine Tourism Organization, Jean Bernard, vice-president of the French Brandy Association, Yu Lu, vice-president of the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Foodstuffs, Native Produce and Animal By-products, and other local officials.  

Jiang stated that Yantai should continue to tap its own grape wine resources and industrial advantages and deepen exchanges and cooperation to boost the high-quality development of the global wine industry.  

This year's expo brought together more than 600 domestic and international enterprises from nearly 30 countries and regions such as France, Spain, South Africa and Chile, as well as nearly 200 foreign brands. It also attracted over 300 purchasing groups, including more than 20 overseas buyers from countries and regions such as Russia, France and Spain, as well as more than 280 domestic purchasing groups.