- Title: South African wine industry on its knees as lockdown set to ease
- Date: 28th May 2020
- Summary: CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA (MAY 25, 2020) (REUTERS) ASLINA WINES OWNER, NTSIKI BIYELA POURING WINE FROM A BARREL/TASTING WORKERS LABELING WINE BOTTLES (SOUNDBITE) (English) ASLINA WINES OWNER, NTSIKI BIYELA, SAYING: "When I look at last year, we had actually forecast on doing...we only did... we did about 70 percent last year on our exports and then this year, as I said like
- Embargoed: 11th June 2020 10:45
- Keywords: Aslina Wines Ntsiki Biyela South Africa's first black female winemaker domestic and export sales stringent lockdown vineyards in Cape Town
- Location: CAPE TOWN AND JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
- City: CAPE TOWN AND JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
- Country: South Africa
- Topics: Commodities Markets,Economic Events
- Reuters ID: LVA002CFUGW2F
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Two years ago, South Africa's first black female winemaker Ntsiki Biyela watched anxiously as the worst drought in a century scorched vineyards across Western Cape.
After surviving that, Biyela's small business Aslina Wines recovered and was poised for growth this year - until the new coronavirus pandemic struck, threatening a bitter harvest as domestic and export sales tanked during nine weeks of stringent lockdown.
"When I look at last year, we had actually forecast on doing...we only did... we did about 70 percent last year on our exports and then this year, as I said like when you look at the total export for all our countries, currently we've just done about 10 percent in terms of the whole growth including the local sales," she told Reuters at the cellars of Delheim wine estate in Stellenbosch where Biyela makes and bottles her own red and white wines.
"I am anxious that we are not going to grow ... but as long as we can survive for the time being," she said. "Everyone is struggling to survive."
Aslina's woes reflect a broader struggle in one of the world's top ten wine producers. According to domestic industry body Vinpro, it was unlikely to make up the nearly 3 billion rand ($172 mln) in direct revenue lost during lockdown, with export losses alone amounting to 200 million rand a week.
As well as strangling exports, South Africa's lockdown, one of the toughest in the world, includes a local ban on the sale of alcohol, although that prohibition will start easing up as the country loosens restrictions starting next week.
Biyela is one of an increasing number of black entrepreneurs breaking into an industry traditionally seen as the preserve of wealthy white landowners who have thrived since South Africa produced its first wine in 1659.
Aslina Wines, named after Biyela's late grandmother who helped raise her in the rural village of KwaVuthela on the east coast, was founded in 2016 and sells around 36,000 bottles a year mainly to the U.S., Japan and the Netherlands.
The first export shipment of Aslina products since lockdown started late March is scheduled to leave from Cape Town port to the U.S. on June 1, said Biyela.
But, demand from her top export market was down. "So we need to push to get that at least another 30 percent to get to our 40 percent that we had budgeted," she added.
"We think about 350 producers out of the 3,000 might not be here and then the material number are the jobs. The wine industry is a huge employer and we think close to 19,000 jobs might be at risk of which about 4 000 are on farms," said Rico Basson, managing director at Vinpro.
Across the entire liquor industry in Africa's most industrialised economy, which includes craft brewers, job losses stood at 117,600, he added.
In a lifeline to the distressed sector, South African president Cyril Ramaphosa this week relaxed lockdown restrictions to level 3 from June 1, allowing the sale of alcohol for home consumption at certain times during the week.
"Opening of the local sales is gonna help us a lot...because that's a quick cash because people locally they pay faster than the international market. So that's gonna help us to have at least a little bit to run with," Biyela said.
(Production: Mike Hutchings, Saawmiet Moos, Sisipho Skweyiya) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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