Wine sales defy shrinking grape acres
Economic slowdown fails to stem the sales of SA wines as consumption rises
South Africa's land under tillage for grapes is on the decline, and this has presented the country's wine industry with a challenge - how to use less land while still increasing wine volumes and sales for both the domestic and international markets. Local demand for wine, despite tough economic conditions, has so far not declined in line with lower consumer spending. According to VinPro, a non-profit company that represents 3500 wine producers, cellars and industry stakeholders, the wine industry sold 401 million litres of natural wine locally in the year ending June 2017 - up 4% in volume and 7% in value over the previous year. Exports worth R9-billion - a 9.8% revenue increase from 2015 - were earned last year and South Africa exported 428.5 million litres of wine, which was an increase of 2% in volume. South Africa is the world's seventh- largest wine producer and contributes about 4% to global wine production. The UK, Germany and the Netherlands are the three biggest consumers o...
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