Distributors of Croatian wines in Japan, together with representatives of several major retail chains have visited Croatia last week with the aim of continuing cooperation on the export of Croatian wines to Japan. Seven Japanese distributors and potential buyers who came to Croatia during a tour of the vineyards and cellars tastes the selected wines and authentic Croatian specialties, and decided to import high quality wines and grape varieties that have not been offered to the Japanese market before. Export of these products to Japan will start by the end of the year.
Exports of Croatian wines to Japan started last year, after a large presentation of Croatian wines was organized in February this year at the largest trade fair in Japan, the Supermarket Trade Show in Tokyo. Both the presentation in Tokyo and the arrival of Japanese partners in Croatia are part of a major project to promote Croatian wines in Japan, which is funded from the Wine framework of the plan Promotion on third country markets from the national program to help the wine sector 2014 – 2018, in which jointly participate wineries Vina Belje, PP Orahovica and Kraljevski Vinogradi.
The project confirmed that Japan is a very demanding and very interesting market for Croatian winemakers who can offer authentic, high-quality wines. 364 million liters of wine are drank each year in Japan, and European brands dominate among the imported wines. Among these, Croatian wines are increasingly gaining in importance.
During the visit to Vina Belje, guests from Japan were greeted by Mirko Filipović, CRO COP, who welcomed them in Croatia, which was a special treat for the Japanese guests as Cro Cop is extremely popular among the Japanese people, and is certainly the greatest ambassador of Croatian sport and Croatia in Japan.
