WEDNESDAY, 10.30AM
SOUTH African wine exports to the United Kingdom increased by 48%, to 833 265 cases, in the first quarter of this year, despite predictions that wine exports would level off.
The growth in exports to the UK took place alongside huge increases in exports of SA wines around the world. SA wine exports have shown consistent large increases every year for the past seven years. According to KWV chairman Lourens Jonker, SA wine exports increased from 8,2-million cases in 1995 to 11,1-million cases last year, brining in an estimated R550-million in foreign currency.
However, despite the growth of SA wine exports to the UK, local wines only occupy about 5% of the UK wine market, compared with Australia’s 8%, and other new world wine producers were experiencing greater export increases, with Chile notching up a 74% increase. The growth of new world wines was largely at the expense of traditional producers such as Italy and Germany.