Is there hope for a more inclusive wine sector in post Covid-19 South Africa?

A vineyard in the Cape Town region (Photo credit: www.capewinelands-info.co.za)

South Africa is acknowledged as one of the world’s foremost wine producers, accounting for 4% of global trade. The country is known for its superb grapes, and some of the finest vineyards, with well-developed infrastructure. The wine industry is also one of the most resilient economic sectors in South Africa, contributing billions to the country’s GDP annually. Since 2003, wine agriculture has contributed at least 11% to the GDP per annum.

To date, however, the wine industry remains predominantly “white” and concentrated in the oldest wine producing hubs of Stellenbosch and Paarl in the Cape region. But in recent years, other regions in the country are venturing into wine agriculture.

KwaZulu -Natal (KZN) province had its first wine harvest in 2013, as part of a project initiated by Ilembe District Municipality. The project was inspired by a recent discovery that the midlands can, and is, a great contender to produce some of the best wines in the country. So far, however, only four vineyards have seized this opportunity, which offers great potential to expand employment opportunities, especially for young people, and black women.

Enlarging the wine “space” is particularly crucial in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis, as South Africa faces ever-increasing economic shutdowns, and the associated looming threat of high unemployment, and increased retrenchments. As the situation deteriorates, retrenchments are being announced on a daily basis, and close to 50% of youth are currently unemployed.

However, the economic meltdown was already underway before the onset of the pandemic. South Africa experienced a sharp economic decline in 2019 that rendered it to be categorised by ratings agencies as being at a borderline recession and junk status.

As the country faces its breaking point, wine agriculture has a big potential to play a big role in turning the unemployment curve. With specific regard to KZN wine agriculture shows potential in four key areas:

A vineyard in KwaZulu Natal (Photo credit: www.pigglywiggly.co.za)

Improving the inclusion, and visibility, of black women
The South African wine industry is more than 350 years old, and it was built by the contribution of the people working on the farm, of whom around 60% are women. For wine agriculture to expand and flourish in the KZN region, black women need to be recognized as more than labourers and farm workers.

Discussing how to take South Africa’s wine industry to the next level, the Black women in beverage initiative emphasizes the importance of supporting female entrepreneurs to take their business online, and achieving greater autonomy for women-owned agribusinesses.

However, the Covid-19 pandemic has had a major impact on efforts to promote more black women in the wine sector. Given the close link between wine agriculture, and tourism, the national lockdown has hit everyone hard. Evanya, a female wine marketer describes the impact on her business. "When Covid19 stopped tourism activities in the country this meant I had to to stop my wine tour and wine tasting business. This pushed me to be creative by creating an online presence, online tastings and online promotions. By creating wine agriculture content online, I started my relationship with a few brands. This has helped create an alternative solution and section of my agribusiness, and has been my source of income through the hard months of strict lockdown. But it has not been easy, and it continues to put a strain on agribusiness."

International, and local, trade networks

South African wine trade flows currently account for approximately ZAR 300 million(approximately US$15 million) a week, which primarily goes to one region. South Africa is still ranked number 12 of the 13 top wine exporting countries in the world with the cheapest exporting rates.

This means that there is a need to look at how to improve wine exports to enhance livelihoods in emerging wine regions in the country. The destabilization of the economy over the past few months, when wine sales were halted as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, highlight the importance of building good post-pandemic trade links with other parts of the world. If trade relationships are not nurtured, more jobs will be lost, leading to the further deterioration of the economy, and the livelihoods of workers

Capacity building

The development of youth is always high on the country, and regional agenda. A focus on enhancing young people’s skills and knowledge on wine agriculture can ensure that KZN will benefit through their creative ideas and innovation.This will surely be an advantage in building capacity for the newest wine region to emerge as a successful wine agriculture community.

In doing so, KZN can learn some lessons from how the more developed Cape Town wine sector has been affected by lockdown restrictions, and how the industry is reinventing itself following the pandemic. Such skills training also needs to address how to cope with fluctuations in government policy, such as the constant closing, and reopening, of liqour sales. Teaching and enforcing such skills is vital beyond Covid-19 as this will teach how to grasp agribusiness stability within wine farms.

Infrastructure

What sets one wine farm apart from the other is the infrastructure it is built on. Good infrastructure opens the doors to agritourism, which is the most common factor in ensuring a viable wine farm. The popularity of South Africa’s wine belt has a lot to do with the aesthetic, and the sophisticated ambiance. It’s no wonder that visitors come in their droves for daily wine tastings, and to experience the overall farm structure. Wine farms that have made it through the Covid-19 pandemic have had to rethink their estate infrastructure, through questioning the purpose of their agribusiness to incorporate digitization.

As you walk through the winelands, it’s almost a perfect picture. Barrels lined up in systematic patterns. Workers toiling the land, and fermenting the finest grapes on long lush green lands that go on and on and on. Working so hard for an economy that has now turned its back on them. A war is brewing: against an economy that continues to rage war against its youth and women. Wine agriculture and its expansion to new regions can blow these fires. It has the potential to stabilize not only the economy, but the unemployment horror that has succumbed and taken over South Africa

Written by Nomfundo Zondi

This article is part of Covid-19 Food/Future, an initiative under TMG ThinkTank for Sustainability’s SEWOH Lab project (https://www.tmg-thinktank.com/sewoh-lab). It aims at providing a unique and direct insight into the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on national and local food systems. Also follow @CovidFoodFuture, our Video Diaries From Nairobi, and @TMG_think on Twitter. Funding for this initiative is provided by BMZ, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.