A Victorian wine grower has been fielding calls from Chinese buyers looking to import her products, despite the ongoing a wine trade freeze between Australia and China.
China was Australia's largest wine export market with sales surpassing $1.2 billion a year, before tariffs imposed on the industry in 2020 halted trade, devastating local growers and prompting an investigation by the World Trade Organisation.
But Jodi Marsh from Sanguine Estate in Central Victoria said there had been whispers of change for weeks and Chinese contacts were confident the wine trade would soon resume between the two countries.
Ms Marsh said Chinese buyers seemed to be preparing for the market to open up again.
"They're getting in as early as possible, so as soon as things do open up, they can ship wine almost straight away," Ms Marsh said.
"They're aware of the length of time it takes to sign contracts and want to come to an agreement.
"Its really encouraging in a time when our industry needs some good news."
Barley breakthrough
On Tuesday, the federal government agreed to suspend its appeal to the World Trade Organisation over Chinese government tariffs on Australian barley.
The two countries will now try to reach a settlement through negotiations.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said if successful, it could have flow-on effects for the Australian wine dispute.
Australian Grape and Wine chief executive Lee McLean said current political negotiations were a step in the right direction.
"If the barley model that is being worked through at the moment provides the right kind of template for us to do that, then that's a really positive thing," Mr McLean said.
He said there could be challenges ahead if the market did re-open and he was "pretty convinced" that the China market has changed.
"We've been absent for a couple of years and other producer nations have been able to fill that gap," Mr McLean said.
"From the demand side it might a little bit different."
Hopes for Chinese exports by Christmas
Changes to the market are also something Ms Marsh is nervous about.
"Hopefully the Chinese palate hasn't changed significantly while they've been importing …wines from other countries," she said.
"There was fear from our importer that the sorts of wines being imported into China might significantly change.
"We're hoping that hasn't happened."
Dean Carroll, chief executive of the Brown Family Wine Group that operates vineyards in Victoria and Tasmania, said there was a lot of "positive noise" coming from his three distribution employees within China.
"We've still got quite a bit of wine sitting on the docks that we can't get into the country," Mr Carroll said.
"I think if the barley situation can be resolved relatively quickly, then it looks very positive."
However, he said if trade relations with China were repaired wine producers would be "much more circumspect" about investments.
"I suspect that grape growers in the Australian wine industry will be much more cautious about putting all its eggs in one basket," he said.
But Ms Marsh was optimistic about trade resumption.
"Its a massive opportunity," she said.
"I'm hoping to hit the ground running with a container going into China at the end of this year."
