Adapting the wine industry in China to climate change: challenges and opportunities

Abstract

Recently, China has become an exciting wine consumer market, as well as one of the most important wine producers. China’s domestic wine industry is in the enviable position of contributing approximately 70% of the total wine consumed with a 1.36 billion population market and the second-largest world economy. Current studies of the Chinese wine industry are mostly focused on the wine market. However, global climate change, which affects the quantity, quality and distribution of wine, will have a strong impact on the Chinese domestic wine industry. In this paper, we characterize the impact of climate change in China and establish policy, financial, technical, institutional and collaborative adaptation strategies for the Chinese wine industry.

Terroir Suitability Zoning for the Six Prevailing Wine Grape Varieties in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (with a Focus on the Helan Mountain East) of China

“…In Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, annual precipitation in the suitable zone for growing wine grapes is generally less than 300 mm, so supplemental irrigation is absolutely needed [34]. Against the background of global warming, air temperatures have significantly increased in Northern China, which could potentially affect the wine grape cultivation in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region where climate is usually cool with cold winter [16,27]. On the other hand, global warming could cause negative effects on wine grape production by increasing the incidence of grapevine diseases and floods (e.g., extreme rainstorm events).…”

“…On the other hand, global warming could cause negative effects on wine grape production by increasing the incidence of grapevine diseases and floods (e.g., extreme rainstorm events). When the wine stakeholders make decisions about building new grape-growing and wine-producing bases, it is critical to factor in the potential effects (both positive and negative) of local climate change [16,19].…”

“…They are North East, Jing-Jin-Ji, Shangdong, Ancient Yellow River, Loess Plateau, Inner Mongolia, Helan Mountain East, Hexi Corridor, Xinjiang and Southwest Mountain. Yantai city in Shandong province (1987) and Helan Mountain East (2012) in Ningxia Hui Autonomous region were nominated as observers by the International Organization of Vine and Wine (OIV) [16]. In each of the grape-growing and wine-producing regions, the ecological and geographical conditions are diverse yet uniquely.…”

The Distribution of Phytoplasmas in South and East Asia: An Emerging Threat to Grapevine Cultivation

“…Grapevine is largely cultivated in several parts of the world, and in the last two decades, its cultivation has largely been extended to South and East Asian countries in vine-allocated areas mainly located in China, India, Japan, Korea, Thailand, and Indonesia (Anderson and Wittwer, 2015) ( Figure 1A ). Currently, China represents one of the most important wine producers in the world (Li and Bardají, 2017), thanks to several years of winemaking and availability of wide geographic sizes for vineyard plantation in distinct topographic situations. In 2017, China and Hong Kong exported the highest dollar-value worth of fresh grapes along with other 13 countries worldwide: $735.2 million (8.8% of total exported grapes) and $363.2 million (4.4%), respectively.…”

“…Each province of northeast China (NE) (Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang) is involved in viticulture, while the province of Henan is the most important vine area of south central China (SC). In east China (E), vineyards are farmed in Shandong, whereas the vines are widespread in the province of Yunnan and Sichuan in the southwest of China (SW) (Puckette, 2012; Li and Bardají, 2017). The Cabernet Sauvignon is the most widely planted wine grape in China with more than 20,000 ha, followed by Chardonnay, Cabernet Franc, Syrah, and Pinot (Li and Bardají, 2017).…”