Shaping a sustainable wine future

Five areas are to be targeted to reach strategic goals.

By Rico Basson, Vinpro MD

strategy and required a supportive policy environment to help stabilise the industry and place it on a sustainable footing.

Five areas have been identified to reach the new strategic goals for the wine industry. These include rebalancing the local market-pricing mix towards higher-value cultivars, capturing more growth at higher price points, growing higher-priced exports in key markets enabled by improved access, more than doubling wine tourism from the 2015 baseline by 2025, as well as accelerating black ownership.

The South African wine industry is a unique asset to the country. It is the eighth-largest wine producer in the world and lures thousands of local and international visitors to the Cape Winelands, generating significant revenue for the economy and helping to build and maintain a strong brand reputation for the country.

The South African wine and brandy industry contributes R55-billion to GDP and R17.9-billion to tax every year. The industry employs 269 096 workers with a total household income of R19.1-billion. It is the second-largest agri-exporter in the country to the value of R10.2-billion and wine tourism employs 12 878 employees, contributing R7.2-billion to GDP.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the wine industry lost nearly a quarter of its sales due to the alcohol bans while tourism stopped. Rising input costs together with downward pressure on prices put further pressure on an already fragile industry.

This prompted the wine industry to establish a new strategic framework, the Wine Industry Strategic Exercise (WISE2025) and the Agricultural and Agro Processing Master Plan (AAMP). Recent shocks have set back the industry’s turnaround

WISE2025 has the vision to create a robust, adaptable and competitive wine and brandy industry. For this we must optimise our diverse resources to deliver sustainable value. Our new strategy has four very important strategic outcomes: a transformed and responsible value chain, a loyal and growing local market base, an established and enviable position in the global market and sustainability must be at the core of all we do.

Wine industry priorities included in the AAMP include market expansion, improving market access and trade facilitation, resolving policy ambiguities and creating an investmentfriendly climate. ■

About Vinpro

Vinpro is a non-profit company which represents close to 2 600 South African wine producers, cellars and industry stakeholders. It keeps its members and the broader industry informed of industry trends and technical expertise and renders specialised services ranging from soil science to viticulture, agricultural economics and transformation and development.

Telephone: +27 21 276 0429

Email: info@vinpro.co.za

Website: www.vinpro.co.za