WOSA WORLD

South African Wine Festival, Kampala - Uganda, 25 October 2013

27 October 2013

The fourth South African Wine Festival has increased from just three producers when it started in 2010 and this year visitors saw an increase to 24 producers showcasing their wines in the heart of Kampala at a larger and beautifully decorated marquee in the garden of the Serena Hotel. The event was packed with guests from the trade, media and consumer sectors.

This was WOSA"s second participation in the event in partnership with South African Airways, MTN, Standard Bank, South African Tourism and Serena Hotel as sponsors of the event.

The event was well attended with over 350 people who were treated to live band music, finger food, South Africa wines, cheese from Kenya and Ugandan coffee. It finished off with a prizegiving for attending guests in the form of wine hampers, iPads and SAA flight tickets to the Cape winelands for two in a lucky draw.

Producers were kept busy throughout by guests who showed sophisticated wine palates, and an interest in new products and different styles of wine. Bubbles are still most popular and both red and white sweet wines are a favourite.

Uganda, with a population estimated at about 33 million, is still a big beer drinking market with a per capita of 10 litres. However, as the middle class grows, interest in wine is also growing extremely well, even though wine accounts for just under 2% of the alcoholic beverages market.

WOSA has built a strategic partnership with organisers of the event and other South African business to grow presence of the South African wine category and to have a wide participation of producers in a cost effective way. Uganda is one of the structured East African markets in terms of retail landscape, infrastructure and a developing market with huge potential.

We had positive feedback from exhibitors who are confident that our efforts will result in an increase of South African wine exports into the East African markets and not just Uganda, as some trade that visited the event are also active in markets such as Kenya and Rwanda.

- Matome Mbatha