Vinexpo cancels Beijing fair

Vinexpo is cancelling its first ever wine fair in Mainland China, which was due to take place in Beijing on 2-3 June 2014.

Vinexpo Beijing marked the French show organiser’s first ever event in Mainland China

According to Wine Times Hong Kong, news that Vinexpo Beijing would not be going ahead was announced at a Vinexpo media briefing in Hong Kong’s Grand Hyatt Hotel on 10 October.

Chairman of Vinexpo Overseas Xavier de Eizaguirre told attendees at the briefing that the Beijing show was being cancelled due to a slowdown in the growth of imported wine sales in China as well as the lack of demand from potential exhibitors who have already invested money and resources in other events next year.

As previously reported by the drinks business, the proposed fair was to be overseen by longstanding Vinexpo chairman, Robert Beynat.

Beynat had told db that the Beijing fair hoped to attract 200 exhibitors and was timed to follow Vinexpo Asia Pacific in Hong Kong, which takes place on May 27-29 next year, and will be 50% bigger than 2012’s exhibition.

Beynat had also said that he expected as many as 3,000 Mainland Chinese visitors to come to the Beijing-based fair, which follows the Hong Kong event to allow exhibitors to take part in both exhibitions.

Vinexpo has not announced plans to cancel its other major fair in Asia next year, called Vinexpo Nippon, which will take place in Tokyo.

Taking place over two days from 1-2 November in the Prince Park Tower in Tokyo, the B2B exhibition will be engineered specifically for the on-trade, and space has been reserved for 400 exhibitors with an expected 3,000 visitors.

Vinexpo Beijing is not the first new initiative from Vinexpo which has failed to materialise.

In July last year, the Bordeaux-based show organiser announced that it would be abandoning its first ever consumer event, which was due to be held in New York City from November 16-18.

As reported by db at the time, the event, called Rendez-Vous by Vinexpo, had failed to attract enough exhibtiors, having filled only 52 tastings areas out of the 150 reserved.

At the time of writing, Vinexpo were unavailable for comment about the cancelling of the Beijing exhibition.