South African wine at record export level
Wine exports for South Africa in 2013 have topped the previous record with a 26% increase.
Exports from the African country rose from 417 million litres to 525.7m litres between 2012 and 2013 with the UK remaining the largest export market.
Just over a fifth of South African exports go to the UK now, rising 21% over 2013 to 111.2m litres.
German is the second export market and also saw a rise of 24% to 96.5m litres. White wine exports rose by nearly 18% and reds 22%.
New CEO of Wines of South Africa (WOSA), Siobhan Thompson, said that the success was the result of a bumper harvest in 2013 which allowed South Africa to fill the gap left by smaller harvests in Europe in recent years as well as a growing awareness of the quality of South African wines.
She said: ““It is encouraging that strong gains were achieved in the UK and Germany, our two biggest markets, where packaged wines in particular showed very healthy growth.
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“Packaged wines to the UK were up 31% and Germany saw an increase of 17%. At the same time, exports also grew across an increasingly broad range of other markets.
“We see as significant the impressive growth in high potential markets, such as the US, where we are confident of achieving long term growth.
“Exports to the US increased by 37%, buoyed by improved distribution and ongoing positive media exposure.”
Of course it is good news for South Africa to post such volume growths, but to round off the story one should also look at the disappointingly low price level at which most of this wine is sold.