The coastal city of Yantai in East China's Shandong province boasts unique advantages in developing wine industry, and the wine industry has grown into one of its pillar industries. [Photo/VCG]

The 2022 Alcohol Innovation and Investment Conference was held in Haikou, South China's Hainan province from Feb 22 to 24, and Shandong's Yantai promoted its wine industry at the conference.

Yantai has a long history of making wine, and the wine industry has grown into one of the city's pillar industries. Yantai is the largest wine production base in China, and has also won global fame for its wine culture, according to Yu Yongxin, chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Yantai municipal committee.

Yu met with guests attending the conference, and invited them to the 13th Yantai International Wine Expo. When meeting with representatives from countries and regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Yu said that Yantai will deepen cooperation with BRI countries and regions in the wine industry, in a bid to achieve win-win results.

In recent years, Yantai's wine industry has grown rapidly, and a complete industrial chain for the wine industry has been built there. According to official data, as of July 2022, Yantai had 204 wine-making enterprises, 63 renowned chateaus, and more than 200 supporting enterprises related to the city's wine industry, the brand value of which had reached 85.2 billion yuan ($12.73 billion).

Yantai is now home to a large number of domestically famous wine enterprises such as Changyu Group, Great Wall, and Weilong Grape Wine Company, and the country's top three wine enterprises are all based in the city. In 2021, the sales revenue of Changyu Group totaled 7.34 billion yuan, accounting for 43.7 percent of the country's total, according to official data.