<\/p>\n\n\n\n
China has become one of Austria's most important economic partners. But the trade relationship is increasingly developing in one direction: Austria buys more and more Chinese goods, while Austrian exports to China decline. Yet this is exactly where major growth opportunities lie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2025, Austria imported goods worth 17.6 billion euros from China. At the same time, Austrian companies exported goods worth only 5.1 billion euros to China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The total volume of goods trade between the two countries thus reached 22.7 billion euros. Compared to 2024, that corresponds to growth of around 9.2 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Particularly striking: imports from China rose by 13.8 percent in 2025, while Austrian exports to China fell by 4.4 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Austria's most important trading partners 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Trade volume = imports + exports. Figures rounded. Source: Statistik Austria\/WKO, 2025 preliminary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Germany remains by far Austria's most important trading partner. Behind it, the orders of magnitude are much closer together. With almost 23 billion euros in goods trade, China belongs to the top tier of Austria's most important trading partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The decisive difference, however, lies in the structure: growth with China is driven mainly by rising Chinese exports to Austria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n China is no longer just the world's workbench<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n China is increasingly gaining strength in areas that traditionally belong to the strengths of Austrian industry. Machinery, vehicles, electronics and other technologically demanding products are no longer supplied to China only from Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chinese companies have themselves become strong international competitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The answer to this should not be less trade with China. Rather, Austria must try to sell more to China and expand economic relations into new areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Food: Austria sells too little to China<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A major opportunity lies in food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2025, Austria exported food worldwide worth around 13.3 billion euros. Of that, however, only about 68 million euros went to China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That is remarkably little and shows how much potential still exists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Austria will hardly be able to compete on price alone for mass-market products. Instead, opportunities exist in the premium segment: dairy products, cheese, organic food, confectionery, fruit juices, wine and other high-quality beverages and foods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Quality, food safety and origin can become a competitive advantage here. Austria should position its products in China much more strongly together under the 'Made in Austria' brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Raiffeisen branch in Beijing also offers a concrete opportunity here. Under its new head, it could support Austrian companies in developing the Chinese market, establish contacts with Chinese partners, and help connect financing, distribution and market entry more effectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is especially important for mid-sized Austrian food producers. For them, the size and complexity of the Chinese market, regulatory requirements and the search for reliable distribution partners are considerable hurdles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If Austrian companies, foreign trade promotion bodies and Austrian financial institutions in China work together more closely, individual export successes could in the long run grow into larger and lasting distribution structures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tourism: China has not yet reached 2019 levels<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Tourism also shows considerable growth potential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before the COVID-19 pandemic, China was one of Austria's most important Asian source markets. In 2025, significantly more Chinese visitors again came to Austria. However, 2019 levels were still far from being reached.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chinese tourists in Austria: 2019 vs. 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Source: Statistik Austria\/Austrian National Tourist Office; figures rounded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This means that in 2025 Austria reached only about half of the pre-pandemic level for Chinese visitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is particularly notable because Austrian tourism as a whole has long since reached record levels again. With China, by contrast, a large gap remains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A return to 2019 levels alone would mean around 540,000 additional Chinese visitors and about 700,000 additional overnight stays per year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Austria should not only try to reach pre-crisis levels again, however. Vienna, Salzburg, the Alps, winter sports, lakes and cuisine offer the prerequisites for attracting significantly more Chinese visitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Affluent independent and premium travelers are especially interesting. They generate value well beyond hospitality: in gastronomy, retail, transport, mountain railways, museums and cultural events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To achieve this, Austria must become more visible on Chinese digital platforms and position its offerings more specifically for the Chinese market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Culture as a door-opener<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Austria has one more advantage that cannot be fully captured in any trade statistics: its culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mozart, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Vienna State Opera, Klimt, Salzburg and Vienna are well-known names in China too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This cultural capital could be linked much more strongly with the economy and tourism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Concerts, exhibitions, music and training programs, and cooperation between Austrian and Chinese cultural and educational institutions not only raise Austria's profile. They can also generate interest in traveling to Austria and in Austrian products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Culture thus becomes a door-opener for tourism and the economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not less China, but more Austria in China<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n China is already one of Austria's largest economic partners. The economic relationships and networks are therefore already in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now it is a matter of using them better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the one hand, Austria must reduce strategic dependencies. On the other hand, it would be economically short-sighted not to make greater use of the opportunities offered by one of the world's largest markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Besides machinery and technology, it is above all food, tourism, culture and high-quality services that offer additional growth potential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Austria's China strategy should therefore not be: less China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It should be:<\/p>\n\n\n\n More Austria in China.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Note: The featured image and this article were edited with AI assistance.<\/em>g wurden mit KI-Unterst\u00fctzung bearbeitet.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" China is one of Austria's most important trading partners. But while imports are growing strongly, Austria's exports are declining. Food, tourism and culture offer major opportunities. Austria therefore needs not less China, but more Austria in China.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\nMehr lesen: {url}\n\n{tags}\n#YANUS","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europa"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/yanus.at\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/9dddf548-5938-4a2d-984b-2054301ad001.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yanus.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yanus.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yanus.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yanus.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yanus.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/yanus.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yanus.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yanus.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yanus.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yanus.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3583"}],"curies":[{"name":"WP","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Country<\/strong><\/td> Exports<\/strong><\/td> Imports<\/strong><\/td> Trade volume<\/strong><\/td> Change vs. 2024<\/strong><\/td><\/tr> Germany<\/td> 56,2 Mrd. \u20ac<\/td> 63,3 Mrd. \u20ac<\/td> 119,5 Mrd. \u20ac<\/td> +1,7 %<\/td><\/tr> Italy<\/td> ca. 12,6 Mrd. \u20ac<\/td> ca. 12,4 Mrd. \u20ac<\/td> ca. 25,0 Mrd. \u20ac<\/td> ca. +4 %<\/td><\/tr> China<\/td> 5,1 Mrd. \u20ac<\/td> 17,6 Mrd. \u20ac<\/td> 22,7 Mrd. \u20ac<\/td> +9,2 %<\/td><\/tr> Switzerland<\/td> ca. 9,9 Mrd. \u20ac<\/td> ca. 11,0 Mrd. \u20ac<\/td> ca. 21,0 Mrd. \u20ac<\/td> ca. +27 %<\/td><\/tr> USA<\/td> 12,9 Mrd. \u20ac<\/td> 7,7 Mrd. \u20ac<\/td> 20,7 Mrd. \u20ac<\/td> ca. \u221213 %<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n <\/strong>
<\/td>2019<\/strong><\/td> 2025<\/strong><\/td> Change<\/strong><\/td><\/tr> Arrivals from China<\/td> ca. 1,0 Mio.<\/td> ca. 460.000<\/td> \u221254 %<\/td><\/tr> Overnight stays by Chinese guests<\/td> ca. 1,5 Mio.<\/td> ca. 780.000<\/td> \u221248 %<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n