Bordeaux. Tuscany. Napa Valley. Xinjiang?
While France, Italy and the United States have reputations as leading wine producers, figures indicate that China could become the world’s primary wine producer within 10 years, according to Angelo Camillo, an assistant professor in the School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management (HRTM).
And from June 9 to July 9, Camillo will be conducting research to determine what characteristics will enable the emerging Chinese wine industry to become the world’s dominant wine industry.
Wine cultivation in China began centuries ago in the Xinjiang Province, but wine has historically remained secondary in popularity to grain spirits and beer. The increase in wine consumption began during the 1800s with the introduction of imported European wines.
Camillo’s study, “The Critical Success Factors of the Wine Industry in China,” will follow up his first investigation into China’s wine trade, which he co-authored with Pisun Xu, assistant professor of finance at the Daniels College of Business, and Xiaoyuan Xu, a Daniels finance research assistant.
The three scholars previously collaborated on a study called “Determinants of Wine Consumption in China,” which has been submitted for scholarly review. In the study, Camillo and his colleagues found that the Chinese perceive wine as healthy and that they consider all good wine to be red.
In addition to conducting research, Camillo will teach a course on entrepreneurship and international management at the South China Normal University in Guangzhou and assist Lulu Jiang, a sophomore HRTM and finance major, with research of her own.
Jiang received a summer research scholarship from the DU Undergraduate Research Center to study the determinants of the popularity of Western cuisine in China.
Jiang anticipates that data gathered from her research will be beneficial for her career.
“If I want to open a restaurant in the future I can know what type of food to serve, how big my market will be and where to locate it.”
And with current projections predicting China’s imminent rise as the world’s leading wine producer, understanding the factors that contribute to this transformation will also prove beneficial, according to Camillo.