About 30 years ago, South Africa was home to 4,500 grape growers; today there are 2,500. Almost 20 years ago, 112,000ha were planted to wine grapes; today that number is 92,000ha. “You’d be hard pressed to say this isn’t a crisis,” author and wine critic Michael Fridjhon tells the FM. “We are losing growers and vineyards and most of our producers are not making a sustainable amount of money.”
The crisis is driven by multiple factors, according to Rico Basson, CEO of producers and cellars representative body SA Wine: low profitability due to cost inflation at farm and winery level, a lack of scale, ageing vines, load-shedding, policy uncertainty and climate concerns...
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Foreign buyers develop a taste for South African wine farmsOver the past decade there’s been an uptick in foreign investment in local wine farms. That may give the ailing South African sector a boost in international markets — the fine-wine market in particular
Source: FinancialMail - 🏆 20. / 63 Read more »