WOSA WORLD

Wines of South Africa at Prodexpo 2013 in Russia

12 March 2013

Prodexpo - the largest and the most prominent specialized wine and food exhibition in the Eastern Europe - has celebrated 20th anniversary this year.

The show grows in space and numbers of both exhibitors and visitors every year, and is the only wine exhibition in Russia which can truly claim the "trade" status.

The scale of the exhibition is enormous: more than 22 000 companies from 63 countries exhibited; 34 national pavilions; 100 000 sqm of gross and 47 000 sqm of net exhibition space; almost 100 000 visitors over 5 days! All Russian importers consider this fair as the most important in the wine show calendar of the year. Most of the importers and big distributors take part in the exhibition with large and exquisitely decorated stands and use this opportunity to make appointments with their regional distributors and widely demonstrate their wine portfolios. Many importers also take the opportunity to look for the new products at the show.

WOSA has been present at this exhibition every year since 2006. Our stand has also grown from 6 sqm and the only generic counter to 30 sqm with 10 individual and two generic showcases. WOSA stand had an improved layout and design this year, and provided producers with everything necessary for their successful work at the exhibition. 13 South African producers came to Prodexpo 2013 to personally present their wines to the demanding Russian public. 10 producers took the individual counters at WOSA stand and three presented their wines independently. One of them - Linton Park - was a success story from the previous year.

After coming to Prodexpo 2012 they found a partner in Russia and this year presented their wines at the importer's stand already! Looking back we can say that every year saw one or two SA producers finding partners in Russia after taking part at Prodexpo. And we are sure that this year will not be an exception! Our stand attracted major attention from importers. Such big players as Marine Express, Fort, Perfect Wines, OKV, Wine Discovery, RTDB and many others were crowding around our stand and tasted our wines with great interest! Many of them were expressing their intentions to introduce new South African wines into their portfolios.

Most SA producers attending the show also expressed their satisfaction with the organisation and running of WOSA stand and the exhibition in general. Of course there were certain suggestion made for the future: to have more space for meetings for example. But we must realize that additional space comes at an additional cost, and prices are stiff in Russia. Anyway, all participating producers brought home many fresh ideas and understanding of the market and a lot of contacts to follow up. And we are sincerely hoping that their wines will appear on the shelves of the Russian shops and on the tables of Russian consumers any time soon!

The participants at the WOSA stand at Prodexpo 2013 were:  Asara, Avondale, Kleine Zalze, MCM Wines, Namaqua, Napier, Rhebokskloof, Robinson & Sinclair, uniWines and Van Louveren.  Wines of Avontuur, Laibach, Simonsig, Remhoogte, Flagstone and Kumala were exhibited on the generic show-sases.    

Prepared by  

Vladimir GorodkovCountry Manager: RussiaWines of South Africa (WOSA)