Wine industry says it's 'at the edge of a cliff'

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The South African wine industry is at a tipping point, with many wine businesses, especially smaller companies and those under black ownership, facing potential closures in the next three to 12 months due to the recurring and now fifth domestic wine sales restrictions.

“Many wine businesses are at the edge of a cliff and the livelihoods of thousands of employees are being endangered in the process. South Africa is the only country in which liquor sales have been banned with no financial assistance from national government, despite repeated requests from the wine industry. Instead, government chooses to close our industry without reliance on empirical evidence to back their decisions and seem apathetic towards its citizens’ plight for survival,” he said.

“However, that national government chooses not to take a differentiated approach to decisions with regard to the management of Covid-19 means that the current ban could be extended for the next four to five weeks after the current two-week ban is set to end on July 11 2021. Many wine businesses would go under, or would have to lay off staff as they won’t have sufficient cash flow to fund their payroll,” Basson said.

Wendy Petersen, operations manager at the South African Wine Industry Transformation Unit, said black-owned brands and farms had worked hard over the years to stay abreast and try to be sustainable in an ever-challenging industry. “Almost 99% of our sales and income is dependent on the local tourism market, our own restaurants, wine tasting rooms and our wine club. Lockdown has reduced this income to zero, due to liquor and restaurant restrictions.

 

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Wine industry suffering: studyVinpro's survey says 58-percent of respondents indicated that their businesses would have to make drastic changes to overcome the impact of current restrictions. At the very least, they could've allowed wine sales from major retail outlets and direct sales from manufacturers but no that also requires common sense and logic which are none existent! How many glasses of wine does even the most irresponsible drinker need to have to misbehave?
Source: eNCA - 🏆 49. / 51 Read more »