How long does it take to get your first order in Asia? We measured ours

Every producer asks this, usually in the first call, and almost every agent gives the same non-answer: it depends. It does depend. But we can do better than that, because we went back through our own signed mandates and measured it.

Between two and ten months from signing to the first confirmed order. Most often, seven to ten.

That is the honest range across the partnerships where we could measure it cleanly. The fastest reached a first order in just over two months. The slowest took a little over ten. The middle sits around eight.

A word on the number itself, because a range built on a handful of cases deserves caution: our CRM only lets us measure this properly on mandates where both the signature and the first order are cleanly recorded, which is a smaller set than our total portfolio. We would rather publish a modest, real figure than a confident, invented one.

Why it takes that long

The first weeks are not selling. They are preparation: understanding the range, agreeing which wines fit which market and at what landed price, building the action plan. Then samples travel, which is slower and more bureaucratic than most producers expect. Then the wines have to be tasted by people whose portfolios are already full, and who are deciding whether to displace something that already sells.

Only then does a first order become possible, and it is usually small. That is normal and it is healthy. An importer testing you with a modest order is an importer who intends to reorder.

What makes it faster

The producers who land at the short end of the range have three things in common, and none of them is luck.

They answer quickly. A buyer's question that waits four days for an answer will often not be asked again. Responsiveness is the single most common complaint importers make about wineries, and the single cheapest thing to fix.

They keep samples ready to ship. Every week between “yes, send samples” and the samples arriving is a week of momentum lost.

They price realistically for the destination. A price built backwards from what the shelf can bear beats a price built forwards from the cellar door, particularly in markets where tax and logistics dominate the final figure.

The producers at the long end are usually the opposite: slow to answer, samples improvised, pricing negotiated three times. The market does not punish them harshly. It simply moves on to someone easier.

What should worry you, and what should not

Six months without a first order is not a failure. It is the normal middle of the process, and it is when most producers get nervous and start asking whether they should add a second agent or a second importer, which usually sets them back further.

What should worry you is different: no meetings happening, no samples moving, no feedback coming back. Activity is the leading indicator. Orders are the lagging one. If the meetings are happening and the samples are being tasted, the order is coming. If nothing is moving at month four, that is worth a conversation.

The honest version of “it depends”

It depends on your range, your responsiveness, your pricing and the market. But the shape of it is knowable: plan for six to twelve months, budget for it, and treat anything faster as a bonus rather than a baseline. Producers who arrive expecting a container in ninety days tend to leave before the work has had time to pay.

Your Wine Rep represents wineries and distilleries across Asia-Pacific and Africa, from first importer contact to reorder. Get in touch to discuss your market.

Further reading: The Contact Ladder · What a wine fair really costs · FAQ: wine export to Asia · Talk to us about your market