The Little Dragon That Could

As reported recently in the Dominion Post article "Little local dragon sent to quench China's thirst", Tuatara is sending a pallet of beer to China as samples. We are confident they will lead to big orders as we continue to develop the export side of our business. The beer will be distributed by Tradepoint in Xiamen, a coastal city in southeast China. Appropriately, Xiamen has been a sister city for Wellington since 1987. Tuatara beer already goes to Australia and America in relatively small quantities but the virtually unlimited potential of the Chinese market makes this a very exciting development.

With little fanfare in 2002, China overtook the United States as the largest producer and consumer of beer. This achievement is based mainly on China’s massive population (estimated at over 1.3 billion) as their per capita beer consumption is still very low at around 30 litres per person. That is considerably less than half New Zealand’s consumption figure. The end result is that there is tremendous potential for growth in the Chinese beer market, particularly as sustained economic growth over the last decade has created a growing middle class with higher disposable incomes.

That said, there should be no doubt that China can be a tough place to sell beer. The market is extremely fragmented and the country is basically a collection of distinct regional economies which often require quite different approaches. It is difficult for even the biggest breweries to operate at a national level there. Several large breweries (including Lion) have struggled in China though currently many of the world’s biggest drinks companies (such as Anheuser-Busch InBev and SAB Miller) are highly active in China.

Of course, Tuatara has no intention of trying to dominate even a regional market. Xiamen city alone has a population of 2.5 million. The surrounding Fujian province is home to 36 million people. Instead, we are setting up the relationship with Tradepoint, going about exporting systematically and selecting our targets carefully.

The favoured beer style in China, like many other countries, is golden lager. Tuatara Helles and Tuatara Pilsner would be more flavoursome than most mainstream Chinese beers or global imports but there is a growing thirst for premium products. Tuatara Porter and Tuatara Ardennes would be something quite different to the average Chinese beer palate but again there is potential. Both those beers could match well with Fujian cuisine which is light but flavoursome.

In the Dominion Post article, reporter Hamish Rutherford called Tuatara the "little local dragon" and we think that is a pretty nice description. The mighty Chinese dragon is a benevolent creature symbolic of power, culture and good luck. It sounds like it could well be a mythical relative of the humble Tuatara – there is a certain family resemblance after all.

Ganbei from the team at Tuatara