Nedbank Vinpro Information Day at the CTICC

We spent Thursday this week at this annual wine industry conference at the CTICC. There were some very interesting presenters, some very amusing, some extremely informative and some left a little bit to be desired. The South African wine industry is contributing R38 Billion to the economy and is THE 6TH LARGEST wine producing country in the world. We were told this in a riveting presentation, drilling down into what the SA Economy has been doing by Nedbank Economist Nicky Weimar. She made many things very clear and easy to understand in a very entertaining way

We learned from Minister Alan Winde that tourism is the best performing centre in the Western Cape, bringing in R18 Billion a year with 6.8% growth and 7.8% job growth – all very positive, but we need to sustain this. Primary Agri grew 3.2% but jobs only 3.4%. Agri processing added R12 billion to the economy but grew only 1.8%. However, employment in the sector grew by 7.7%

We need to focus on overseas marketing especially in markets we have not yet conquered like USA, China and Japan, said Jancis Robinson, who told us that the ‘Geek’ overseas market is drinking wine made from rare and unusual varieties (some of which we are already growing) and that we are not in the right price bracket for wine to get taken seriously, we need to charge more, and she is confident about the UK market for SA wine. It seems more people are buying wine on line or from smaller select shops than from the powerful supermarkets who drive prices down and damage our industry. Bulk wine is a concern

The introduction was made almost entirely in Afrikaans, although the keynote speaker, Jancis Robinson, is British

 Abrie Botha, chairman of VinPro, welcomed the delegates

 and Philip Wessels, Group Managing Executive, Retail and Business Banking at Nedbank opened the conference

 Nicky Weimar, Nedbank economist  gave a superb presentation. An object lesson in how to inform while keeping an audience focussed and amused

 Craig Irving, CEO of Consumer Insight Agency, encouraged the audience to think about new ways to sell South African wine to Africa

 Francois Viljoen, VinPro Consultation Service Manager, spoke about the 2014-5 season and harvest expectations

 Alayne Reesburg, CEO of Design Capital Cape Town, spoke about taking wine tourism to the next level

 Rico Basson, CEO of VinPro, presented ideas about strategies for the Wine Industry

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015