Johannesburg - South African wines made further inroads in European markets on Wednesday when a black-owned wine company from Stellenbosch signed a multi-million rand deal to start shipping over 60 000 bottles of wine from next month.
Koopmanskloof Wines had this windfall during the Investment and Trade Initiatives (ITI) organised by the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) that began on Monday in Moscow, Russia.
Koopmanskloof is made up of four farms in which 120 workers have shares and the holding company is 51 percent black-owned.
Speaking in Moscow after concluding the deal worth millions of rands with a Russian distribution agency, Koopmanskloof’s managing director, Rydal Jeftha, said their deal with a Russian company was a long-term strategic partnership.
“We are also working on a long strategic partnership of providing half a million bottles by 2020 and give our partners more brands in our portfolio to distribute in the Russian market,” Jeftha said in a statement.
Jeftha said even though Koopmanskloof was already distributing in one supermarket in Russia, this deal would help the brand to expand and use this opportunity as a stepping stone to be successful in the Russian market.
“We are very excited as our set goal for this market is now coming into fruition and this will mean we can employ more people back at home especially the youth,” Jeftha said.
“This is an example of a small black business empowerment enterprise that can give hope to others and instill positivity that it is not all gloom in South Africa.”
This ITI to Russia, which also had promising leads for several other South African companies, was led by the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Mzwandile Masina.
Masina and the Governor of St Petersburg, Georgy Poltavchenko, held meetings where they discussed and identified various issues that could benefit and increase trade and investment between South Africa and Russia, particularly in the city of St Petersburg.
The two countries committed to strengthening economic ties and further boost trade in various fields of cooperation.
It was also agreed in the meeting that both parties would consider signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that would focus on issues of capacity building in the marine sector and South African Operation Phakisa initiatives in the ocean economy.
The ITI comes to an end on Thursday.
African News Agency