South Africa has taken a strategic approach to marketing its wine in China, Hong Kong and Japan considering its small budget. Marcus Ford, Asia market manager for Wines of South Africa (Wosa), said despite this the country was gradually gaining market share. “All wine-producing countries have their eyes firmly on China,” he said, but indicated that many had also over-invested in the market. “As an example Wine Australia has invested $50m in developing the China (and USA) markets over the past three years and the results are obvious. China is now the number one destination for Australian wines, with an export value of over one billion US$.” While it may not have this kind of budget, South Africa has proved that hard work and a persistent approach works. It is currently number 7 on a list of the value of imports by country of origin.“The top five countries are well established, with Australia at the top,” said Ford. “It is followed by France, Chile, Spain and Italy. The US is in position number 6.” According to Ford, South Africa is expected to overtake the USA in 2020. “Given Wosa’s relatively scarce resources, we need to be nimble and strategic about China,” he said. “There are some great success stories for SA wines in the China market but there is no substitute for being in the market to build brands and relationships.” Ford said efforts to find strong, stable partners in China remained by far the biggest challenge and a lot of effort was going into addressing this.
