Revenue from South African wine exports increased by 21% to $750 million (~R14 billion) in 2021 - an improvement that brought it back to pre-pandemic levels, despite the problems at the country's harbours, said Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform, and Rural Development Thoko Didiza.
Wine was SA's fourth largest agricultural export product, making up 6% of the overall export revenue of $12.4 billion, she said at the opening of CapeWine 2022 in Cape Town on Wednesday.
"SA's wine industry export markets are well diversified, with the UK remaining our leading market, followed by Germany, the US, The Netherlands, Namibia, and Canada," said Didiza.
She acknowledged that the wine industry had raised issues regarding "inefficiencies of infrastructure" at harbours, which caused delays in exports at the start of the year.
"These are some of the problems we are working to resolve. Transnet has met with some in the wine industry and other subsectors to outline an agricultural strategy," said Didiza.
"The challenges of deteriorating road infrastructure have also been highlighted several times. We were engaging with Infrastructure South Africa and the Department of Transport, among others, to respond to this challenge."
She acknowledged the work done in the wine industry to increase transformation and improve farmworkers' the living conditions.
"Transformation is not a zero-sum game. It is more about growing the pie together," concluded Didiza.