WOSA WORLD

Chinese wine lovers discovering South Africa through its wines

9 July 2013

South Africa returned to Shandong Province this year to participate in the 7th Yantai International Wine Exposition, which was held in Yantai, the third largest city in Shandong Province, China. The delegation of 16 South African wine companies was lead by Western Cape ministers Gerrit Van Rensburg and Alan Winde, and this is the third consecutive year that the sector participated in the event, with support from Wines of South Africa (WOSA).

Both the Western Cape Province and Shandong Province are part of the Regional Leaders Forum with other members including Bavaria (Federal Republic of Germany), Quebec (Canada), Upper Austria (Austria), Georgia (United States of America) and Sao Paulo (Brazil).

Formal diplomatic relations between South Africa and the People’s Republic of China were established in January 1998. The Western Cape Province of South Africa has a bilateral agreement with Shandong Province of China on areas such as agriculture, trade and investment, economic cooperation and other fields of government, and these two provinces (like their National spheres) this year celebrate 15 years of bilateral relations.

The South African pavilion covered an area close to 250sqm -  the biggest country pavilion at the event! A joint effort between WOSA and the Western Cape Department of Agriculture, the stand was well branded and featured 16 wine companies, including big names such as DGB, Riebeek Cellars, Diemersfontein, and Waterstone Wines.

The WOSA seminar, titled 'Discover South Africa through its Wines', gave visitors an introduction to the history of South African wine and highlighted the quality of South Africa’s wines and wine tourism offerings. The presentation concluded with a guided wine tasting and was thoroughly enjoyed by the sold-out seminar audience of importers, media, sommeliers, and wine retailers.

South Africa’s desire to further explore the Asian market is supported by notable increases in exports to countries such as China.

South African wine exports to China have experienced good growth in both bulk and packaged product, growing approximately 32% over the past four years (2009–2012) in terms of total exports, while packaged exports grew by 73%. Figures for the first five months of 2013 already show a 53% increase for total exports, compared to the same period last year. What is especially important is that the growth has been predominantly in packaged exports, which showed a 40% increase over the same period.

South Africa’s strong presence at this year’s Yantai Wine Exposition will be further expanded by a trade-only event in Beijing on the 10th of July 2013, where 26 producers and importers will showcase over 250 different South African wines.

For more information on South Africa’s presence at the Yantai Wine Exposition:

http://wosa.co.za/china/download/Yantai_expo.pdf

http://www.chinanews.com/shipin/cnstv/2013/07-05/news247715.shtml

Michaela Stander

Market Manager: Europe & Asia

July 2013