The South African Wine and Brandy Company (SAWB) has launched the first-ever survey to ascertain the industry’s local and global competitiveness.
Johan van Rooyen, SAWB CEO, said the study will seek to determine what factors are enhancing or constraining the South African wine industry in the quest to be more competitive, and how “truly competitive” the industry is on an international scale.
“Spectacular success stories can indeed be quoted, but we need a systematic view on matters reflecting the industry’s ability to compete as a whole, especially in the rapidly changing global environment,” said Van Rooyen.
“And that is why the SAWB and all its role-players have deemed an executive survey on competitiveness to be a priority. All other good intentions the industry has, such as transformation, improved quality, sound research and boosting wine tourism mean nothing if we are not able to compete to the best of our ability.”
The survey, which is being carried out among the roughly 1 000 local winery executives and other leading wine bodies, is based on internationally recognised practices used to determine and analyse economic and business competitiveness.
According to Van Rooyen, the survey focuses on opinions of executives in the wine industry and aims to generate important new information and insights that will be used to inform the industry, government and other important stakeholders.
“We can only become more competitive if we know how competitive we actually are and what constrains or enhances our efforts,” he said.
“For this we need facts, guidelines and suggestions — all of which are incorporated in the survey. The South African wine industry has seen a major shift in factors determining its success over the past ten years. Since the scrapping of economic sanctions in 1990, the priority was to target international markets and develop a presence — as well as an awareness — of South African wines. This had to be done at breakneck speed, and it was mostly done well and with spectacular results.
“However, the next challenge — growing overall market value share through increased global competitiveness — has been brought upon our industry by myriad factors, such as globalisation and the deregulation of the economy, as well as high wine volumes world- wide. These factors have added many new challenges for an agricultural-based sector such as the wine industry — not only in South Africa, but around the world.”
Apart from the global market, insight into the local market is also of importance, van Rooyen noted. Per-capita wine consumption in South Africa had been stuck at about nine litres for several years, and the industry needed to open up new markets with new consumers in South Africa. – I-Net Bridge