The move will also support local grape-growing farmers. - Reuters
BEIJING (Bloomberg): China, a fast-growing wine market, plans to turn a northern region on the edge of the Gobi desert into a centre of top quality wine production to compete with international brands and boost the local economy.
The Ningxia region has had a wine industry on the eastern foothills of the Helan Mountains since the early 1980s. The area, lying at a similar latitude to the Bordeaux region in France, has more than 200 vineyards with annual production of 130 million bottles, or a quarter of the country’s output, Zhao Yongqing, a vice governor of the region, told a press conference in Beijing.