South Africa makes it onto the rostrum
Tuesday 23 February
South Africa is now selling more wine in the UK than France. You would have got very long odds for that happening if you’d placed a bet 15 years ago.
The latest Nielsen stats put three New World countries on the UK’s best-selling rostrum: Australia, the US (well, California) along with the Safas. What a turn around in 20 years. According to the OIV, new world producing wine countries had 3% of the market in the late 1980s but in 2008, it was 30% and its share is clearly continuing to grow.
In the past year, South African wine sales have increased 20% by volume to 12.27m cases, while French wine sales continued on their slide into the abyss, dropping 12% to 12.26m cases.
Interestingly, South Africa released its volume figures but not its value figures, which leaves us guessing. Anyone venturing into a UK supermarket, will see there are plenty of deals on South African wine, which have been driving volumes and not value.
As Australia and Chile have seen, cheap isn’t cheerful for your wine industry. If you sell at less than a fiver, that damages perceptions of your wine industry and it’s difficult to claw your way out of that.
Nevertheless, South Africa has come a long way and the World Cup is coming in June putting the country firmly on the map.
Regardless of whether it is by volume or value, it is very interesting reading.
Obviously there are flaws/ shortfalls in such statistics eg doesn’t consider the volumes from booze cruises (albeit in decline themselves).
A similar Australian snapshot by AC Nielsen threw up some interesting questions, and somebody on the reputable winefront site pointed out that it’s worth remembering that AC Nielsen really only captures retail sales.
However if in this case the figures are from customs/ import records then that point is moot.
Still, good reading. Am a new visitor here. Loving the work so far.
Cheers
- by Stuart Robinson
Be careful about calling them “Safas”...
http://blogs.timeslive.co.za/pendock/2010/01/04/pinotage-wars/
- by Justin Roberts, Jerez de la Frontera
Hi Stuart, welcome to the site first of all.
You’re right, Nielsen is purely grocery stores/off-trade sales and doesn’t take into account independents and the on-trade so it is obviously flawed but sadly it’s the best we can get!
You’d think there’s a gap in the market but no-one seems to want to fill it. I suppose no-one in the wine trade wants to shell out for the data.
And to Justin, that’s an interesting link. But aren’t we getting a bit too sensitive - I’m a native of beautiful Middlesbrough and get called a Smoggy as well as being mistaken for a monkey hanger - a local of nearby Hartlepool! I’ve never been offended. Maybe that’s my thick north-east skin.
- by Rebecca