With an eye on Asia’s diverse and dynamic wine and spirits market, Vinexpo Asia opens its doors on 28 May to exhibitors from 35 countries. Thousands of importers, merchants, hoteliers and other trade visitors will be attending the much-anticipated three-day event.

Vinexpo Asia is the region’s leading event for the wine and spirits sector, and for the first time in six years, it heads back to the vibrant metropolis of Hong Kong, at the gateway to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Mainland Chinese market.

The show will take place at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC) and feature 35 exhibitor countries from across the globe. An estimated 10,000 trade visitors from 60 different nations are also expected to attend.

“Vinexpo Asia is an essential meeting place for our industry. I meet many of my colleagues there and there is a real diversity of producers exhibiting”, says Ronald Khoo, Head of Wine and Spirits at Cathay Pacific.

Approximately 40% of the exhibitors hail from France. The other 60% represent a diversity of regions, including North America (Canada and the United States), South America (Chile and Argentina), Africa (Ethiopia and South Africa) and even the Balkans (Bosnia-Herzegovina and Belarus). 

There will also be producers from Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Italy and Mainland China, where according to the IWSR Institute, wine and spirits consumption is expected to grow by 19% in value between now and 2027.

Among the trade visitors, approximately 50% are importers. The other half are wholesalers, wine merchants, retailers, hoteliers and restauranteurs, who will have an opportunity not only to network and collaborate, but also to learn. Vinexpo Asia places a special emphasis on education, and its Vinexpo Academy offers more than 50 premium sessions led by 75 experts. The goal is to encourage innovation and promote excellence, all with an eye on the Asian market, where rising incomes, an expanding middle class, and a growing affinity for Western lifestyles promise opportunities for wine and spirits producers.

Mainland China continues to be the region’s largest import market, but wine and spirits professionals are also keen to target consumers in places such as Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines. 

Photo: © Odeum

---

CSR Strategy 2024

Vinexpo Asia continues to take steps toward sustainability, and with an eye on reducing its carbon footprint organisers for this year’s event have adopted some key CSR strategies. 

Collecting corks
Exhibitors are asked to set their corks aside in receptacles located on exhibit counters and in the aisles. Those corks will then be collected so that the materials can be reused. Proceeds will later be donated to a charity organisation.

Saavy shipping
Knowing that transport is a major source of CO₂ emissions, Vinexpo Asia will provide wine glasses (68,000 of them) from its French stock so as to avoid having to bring them in from each exhibitor's country. Organisers place an emphasis, furthermore, on shipping materials by boat, and encourage exhibitors to do the same.
Also, to cut down on waste, all spittoons and ice buckets will be collected at the end to be reused in future events. 

Trimming back
When it comes to the environment, less is more. With that in mind, organisers removed 10,000 sq. metres of aisle carpet. The choice was also made to use recycled materials, especially wood, to build booths, and to use existing rooms for the Vinexpo Academy.