Temple Bruer Winery estimates as much as a 25 percent boost in its export market after attaining full organic certification in China.
The winery has become the first NASAA Certified Organic operator to attain full organic certification under the NASAA – CHC Global Organic Market Access Agreement.
Owner of Temple Bruer, David Bruer, estimates achieving Chinese organic certification via NASAA could be worth more than $760,000 annually and boost the winery’s export market by as much as 25 percent.
According to Bruer, the winery expects to be exporting around 9,000 cases of organic wine to China annually at an average export price of $85 a case.
He said exports had accounted for around 35 percent of the winery’s sales “before the Aussie dollar went crazy.”
“When the Australian dollar hit $1.06 we didn’t lose a customer but they bought a lot less and we saw our exports drop to about 10 percent of our market,” he said. “It wasn’t a lot of fun but we’ve lived through that, we’re exporting again and our numbers are going up.
“Achieving Chinese certification via NASAA means we can legally export our organic wines to China and we’re hoping to get back to 35 percent,” he said.
Temple Bruer has been exporting since 1989 to predominately Asian markets including Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore and The Philippines, as well as small quantities to News Zealand, Canada, UK and Sweden.
The winery began exporting organic wine certified to Australian standards to China in 2004, but stopped in 2010 as they became conscious that Chinese certification was required, which until the NASAA – CHC Agreement, was a costly and time-consuming process.
In March 2014 NASAA signed a global market access agreement with Chinese organic certifier CHC to inspect organic operations within Australia for export to China.
NASAA General Manager Ben Copeman said China does not recognise international standards, including Australia's National Standard and requires all organic products to be certified to the Chinese Standard.
“In April this year the Chinese authorities really started cracking down on foreign organic products that weren’t certified to the local standards.
“With foresight in mind, NASAA signed a global market access agreement with CHC earlier this year which is saving Australian operators thousands of dollars and months of paperwork in exporting their organic products to China.
“I believe the recent China – Australia Free Trade Agreement will greatly assist the flow of certified organic products and boost economic activity between the two countries.
“The affluent Chinese middle classes’ love affair with our clean, green certified organic beef, wine, dairy, children’s foods and processed foods is tipped to grow by around 20 percent over each of the next five years,’ he said.
Chinese certification has provided a much needed boost for Temple Bruer’s export market, with one shipment sent and another 1,700 cases set to depart for China before Christmas, all with NASAA – CHC certification and carrying the Chinese Organic label.
“We export three quarters red, one quarter white, with Shiraz or Shiraz blends, with some Merlot and Cabernet Merlot, to China,” Bruer said.
“Our market is mostly the younger 25 to 40 year old demographic with slight female bias, which is interesting as the Chinese seem more interested in our reds.”