Leading Australian wine brand Penfolds will begin sourcing and producing wine in China in order to sidestep crippling tariffs imposed by Beijing.
Penfolds has a 178-year history and is one of Australia’s oldest wineries—like many other local exporters, the company was hit by tariffs ranging from 107.1 to 212.1 percent as part of the Chinese Communist Party’s ongoing trade war against Australia.
The move came in retaliation to calls from Foreign Minister Marise Payne for an independent investigation into the origins of COVID-19.
Efforts have been underway by Australian businesses to diversify trade away from China to mitigate losses from the trade war—with a significant uptick of wine exports across Asia, including Singapore (up 108 percent over 2021 to AU$166 million), Hong Kong (up 45 percent to $191 million), South Korea (up 74 percent to $47 million), Taiwan (up 65 percent to $31 million), and Thailand (up 31 percent to $28 million)….