African shoppers are growing a palate for South African wines, as is evidenced by the truth that Nigeria imported extra South African wine than China in 2024.
Photograph: Equipped
The potential for South African wine in Africa is rising, and the native wine trade is focusing its efforts on rising gross sales in Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania.
This was in line with Rico Basson, CEO of South Africa Wine, talking at a Nedbank-hosted session about worldwide commerce and tariffs at Nampo Cape earlier in September.
Basson stated the African market introduced a bigger alternative for the native trade than the Chinese language market, however South Africa’s wine exporting rivals felt the identical approach and there was a threat that ‘anyone else will steal our breakfast’.
“The US simply established a Californian agent in Kenya to promote Californian wine there. We can’t relaxation on our laurels,” he defined.
Information from SA Wine Business Data and Techniques (SAWIS) confirmed that Nigeria imported greater than 4,2 million litres of wine from South Africa in 2024, whereas China imported shy of three,1 million litres.
Nonetheless, most of Nigeria’s spectacular import volumes had been bulk wine (1,987 million litres), which fetched far decrease costs than packaged wine. China imported solely 47 520 of bulk wine, in contrast with round three million litres of packaged wine.
Nonetheless, Nigeria is exclusive on this place amongst South Africa’s strategic African wine markets; Tanzania and Uganda imported solely packaged wine in 2024 (2,67 million and 1,3 million litres, respectively), and in Kenya, the 1,2 million litres of bulk South African wine imports represented solely 37% of the whole of greater than 3,3 million litres.
Matome Mbatha, market supervisor for Africa at export physique Wines of South Africa (WoSA), stated South African wines had a optimistic picture and notion within the beforehand talked about strategic African markets as a consequence of their high quality, affordability, and the trade’s numerous winemaking types.
“South African wines are getting extra consideration because of the worth WoSA brings via introductory wine programs, which commerce, media, and shoppers alike discover [helpful in expanding] their data base about South African wine, historical past, and tourism.
“As well as, a number of wine producers have supported and [participated] in importers’ promotional actions, together with market visits to satisfy shoppers,” he defined.
Whereas this optimistic notion introduced a ‘big alternative for the development’ of South African wines in these markets, in addition to alternatives to determine extra premium choices, “These alternatives additionally include challenges for exports, comparable to tariff and non-tariff limitations in markets, in addition to rivals from different wine-producing areas which can be making inroads to markets with aggressive advertising activations,” Mbatha instructed Farmer’s Weekly.
“We now have famous new function gamers in our focus markets, comparable to Moldova, in addition to rivals like Wines of California, [and those from] France and Chile, who’re operating generic and model promotional activations. That is why WoSA and producers are taking an aggressive method in generic and model promotional activations to take care of and strengthen market share in all key strategic markets,” he added.
Based on Mbatha, obstacles South African wine confronted in reaching African markets included ‘the myriad of pink tape’ in some nations, the price of doing enterprise in others, an financial downturn in markets the place economies had been based mostly on oil, delays and chilly storage deficiencies at ports, and an absence of concord in customs programs.
Basson stated on the Nampo occasion that the perceived threat of doing enterprise in Africa was a lot increased than the precise threat. Agri SA CEO Johann Kotzé echoed this, citing the ‘miracle’ of the M-PESA cell cash system, which he stated confirmed that Africa was not in need of cash however fairly underserved by the banking sector.
Mbatha referred to the Worldwide Financial Fund’s rosy outlook for development in sub-Saharan Africa, projected at 4,2% in 2026, in contrast with its projections of 4% in 2024 and three,8% this 12 months.
He stated that because of the excessive price of doing enterprise in Africa, WoSA would proceed to conduct generic wine reveals and targeted group tastings as an economical technique to construct consciousness of and presence for South African wine.
Mbatha added that the main target could be on in-store promotions, comparable to these held in Shoprite shops throughout Africa, with the help of the Western Cape Division of Agriculture.
He stated the continuing growth and transformation of the telecoms, banking, and retail panorama and infrastructure in East Africa introduced ongoing alternatives for the South African wine trade, notably in locations the place native retailers had been coming into or rising their presence in markets with rising urbanisation and rising affluence.
