My name is Ma Huiqin (马会勤), but most people call me Qin, similar to “Chin”. I’m a professor at China Agricultural University (CAU) in Beijing and specialize in wine and fig marketing and grape and fig molecular biology.
I have two decades of practical experience with partners on five continents. From creating a Chilean wine brand for China to assessing vineyard disease in the Ningxia region. From developing the fig industry in Sichuan province to helping an investment team evaluate Australian wineries.
As professor in the Department of Fruit Tree Sciences at CAU’s College of Horticulture, I also do a great deal of lab research. You can see some of the research on which I have collaborated here.
I also regularly serve as a wine judge and conference speaker, and have taught wine appreciation to over 7,000 students during the past 15 years. My students and I have also been creating a series of educations wine videos for the social media platform WeChat. It’s called Wine Knowledge Bureau: Tannin Museum.
I am the OIV coordinator for the Ningxia region, vice secretary general of the Chinese Society for Viticulture , committee member of the Chinese Society for Horticultural Science, and Asia regional editor for Wine Economics and Policy. I have written for many publications, including columns for Economic Observer and Fine Wine & Liquor.
I have worked at CAU since finishing my PhD there in 1997. I did post-doctoral research at the Institute for Wine Biotechnology at Stellenbosch University in South Africa and attended the College of Agriculture at Hebrew University in Israel as an international student.
This site covers some of my projects, publications, and speaking and judging experience. As you can guess, I like to keep busy!
For more info, email me via hqma (at) cau.edu.cn.