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Cape Town - Sales of South African wines overseas are
showing a healthy increase again after a poor year in 2006. According to Wines of South Africa (Wosa) the figures for the first 11 months of last year were 16% up on the previous comparable period.
"The figures for the full year will be out by the end of this week," said Wosa chief executive Su Birch on Tuesday. "We expect the figure will remain about the same 15% or 16%."
She said she expected exports for the full year to exceed 300 million litres, which would be a record.
Birch pointed out that the drop in international sales in 2006 was as much as 5%, but last year's growth had more than compensated for it, and it looked as though the two years together would average out at 5% growth a year.
"All indications are that the temporary setback in sales experienced in 2006 is now well and truly behind us," she said.
Another positive trend, she added, was that the country's global reach had widened, significantly diversifying risk. "Whereas five years ago, 72% of our packaged exports went to just the UK and the Netherlands, the net has widened
so that the UK, Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany and the US currently account for 70% of total export volumes."
Reversing negative trend
Wine exports are divided between "packaged wines" and wine in bulk. The packaged wines include those bottled in South Africa and those put into wine- boxes, much admired in Sweden. There was a growing tend, Birch said, for South African wine in bulk to be bottled (or boxed) overseas.
She said that with the exception of the Netherlands, where sales were characterised by heavy discounting, all other major markets had shown sound growth in demand for local packaged wines.
"In the Netherlands, we are currently addressing the higher-priced segment of the market, where margins are more attractive for producers, and we are advising local wineries to move their focus away from extreme value business.
"The UK remains our biggest export destination, where we have reversed the negative trend of the past two years. Not only are packaged wines showing a growth of 6%, but we are growing ahead of the market's 4%, which means we should begin to increase market share again from next year.
"We are also particularly heartened by the fact that much of this growth is taking place in the more premium segment of the market."
- I-Net Bridge