Yixinou train: opportunity to export Spanish wines to China

The Yixinou train, which runs between Madrid and the Chinese city of Yiwu, is an "opportunity" for Spain's wine sector, according to Ines Menendez de Luarca, Director of Food and Gastronomy of the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade (ICEX).

"We believe it can be a very interesting opportunity in terms of logistics, exporting wine to Yiwu and from there to distribute it throughout the country," Menendez de Luarca told Xinhua in an interview.

The train, which makes the world's longest rail route, moving products from China to Spain and vice versa, "is a great opportunity to export our food products to China" according to Menendez de Luarca.

However, she said that despite the fact that "some companies, and wineries are already using it, the train is insufficiently known."

China leads the importation of wine in the world and Spain is its fourth largest supplier exporting overall red wine, especially Rioja, to the areas of Shanghai and Guangdong.

However, they are promoting the wine in other cities where demand is also increasing, for example, Hangzhou, Nanjing and Xiamen.

"In 2015 exports of Rioja grew by 35 percent," Menendez de Luarca said, explaining that "in the last 15 years" the country went from exporting bulk wine to bottled wine, which accounted for 92 percent of the wine exported last year.

"This is actually good for us because what Spain needs is to position their wines in higher ends models in market, so that the Chinese consumer pays more for our wines that are of a very high quality," Menendez de Luarca said.

This would be one of the challenges for the Spanish wine sector according to Menendez de Luarca, who also pointed out the challenge needed to address the logistics in order to promote the product in other cities and reach the final consumer. Endit