South Africa’s distinguished localisation agency, Proudly SA, is to host its inaugural wine expo from the 7 until 9 July.
Behind the expo’s curtain call, was the realisation that local wine sales were under strained pressure.
According to Rico Basson of the Vinpro, South Africa’s wine producers’ profitability was still under pressure due to a sharp increase in input costs affecting wine prices coupled by consumer spending remaining low.
“Grape producers’ input costs have over the past decade increased on average by 7% per year, while a 14% increase is expected in 2022 at farm level due to the global exponential rise in energy, chemical and fertilizer prices,” Rico claimed.
Happy Ngidi, chief marketing officer at Proudly SA, said the wine expo formed part of the agency’s many planned trade shows.
“With the growing number of patriotic South Africans who are becoming more aware of the importance of choosing locally made goods over imports, we thought it necessary to start hosting trade shows that exclusively promote South African made products and services” she said.
Since the spectacular days of Soweto Wine Festival and other subsequent wine shows, there’s an air of acceptance that local wine promotion has limped from one occasion to the next.
Asked how different the Proudly SA Wine Expo will be?
Ngidi added that the wine Expo was intended to showcase “good quality local wines SA produces, jobs created in this industry and the value chain the industry contributes to, in the best interest of the South African economy.”
South Africa’s exceptional quality of wines were lauded all around, and with the current 2022 wine crop, the wine industry remained upbeat.
According to Vinpro, the annual SA Wine Harvest Report had estimated the 2022 wine grape crop to be at 1 378 737 tonnes, smaller than in 2021 (5.5%).
Proudly SA said the Local Wine Show will be opened between 15h00 and 22h00 across the three days and will be hosted in partnership with the Department of Trade Industry and Competition (the DTIC) Southern Sun, the Wine Arc, the National Agricultural Marketing Council (NAMC), SA Wine Industry Transformation, the SA Wine Industry Transformation Unit, the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA), as well as KayaFM as media partner.
Registration was now open for the free-to-attend event which promises to showcase some of the best of South Africa’s wine industry.
