Audrey D’Angelo
The Cape wine industry achieved record export levels in the past year in terms of volume, and is on track for a record harvest this year if it is not sabotaged by strike action.
SA Wine Industry Information & Systems anticipates that this year’s wine grape crop should amount to 1 384 357 tons because of favourable growing conditions, even though there has been a fall in the number of vines planted.
Su Birch, the chief executive of Wines of South Africa (Wosa), the industry body for the promotion of wine exports, said yesterday that “at this stage all indications are that this year’s local crop could be the third biggest in recorded history, assuming that good weather conditions continue, there is a speedy and peaceful resolution to the farmworker strikes and harvests come in on time”.
She said overseas sales of South African wines had been helped last year by the weakness of the rand and “a significant drop in the recent harvests of competitor wine-producing nations in Europe, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand”.
However, profits had been limited by a growing trend in the main, established, markets to import wines in bulk rather than the more expensive bottled wines. Bulk wines accounted for 59 percent of exports last year.
Recessionary conditions in the main, established markets had resulted in a rise in the proportion of wines exported in bulk from 20 percent 10 years ago to more than half now.
Local producers had been forced to accept that, to compete globally, they had to provide what the mainstream markets wanted.
However, there had recently been a growth in exports of bottled wines to North America, Japan, China and “several increasingly affluent African nations – all regions in which we have been increasing our marketing investment”.
Discussing the current labour unrest in the Western Cape, Birch said there was growing support for the Wine and Agricultural Industry Ethical Trade Association (Wieta) and the international market had reacted positively last year to the launch of the Wieta ethical seal carried on bottles as a guarantee of fair labour practices.
“Wieta accreditation for rigorously audited fair labour conditions has accelerated since last year and we expect many more labels to qualify this year.”