Some facts and figures, with harvest predictions and past production statistics
 

Fifteen or so years back, China’s wine production gave that country a ranking a little below Austria and Brazil. In the official 2005 estimates, China ranks seventh, just a little behind Australia (which it will surely overtake for 2006, given recent reduced harvests in that drought-ravaged country). With a lower 2005 harvest in the Cape too, Germany has (temporarily?) jumped over South Africa into eighth spot. France, Italy and Spain continue to head the list, followed by the USA and Argentina.

The figures are reported in the December 2007 edition of ‘Wine Industry Information’, the monthly publication of statistics – some specialist-dry, some generally fascinating – from Sawis (South African Wine Industry Information and Systems), and available on their not always very user-friendly or intuitive website. (To find the December issue online, you must navigate to the ‘Statistics’ menu, then to ‘Other publications’, then to ‘Monthly publication’, and then you’d be getting close.)

Also reported is the latest estimate for the forthcoming South African harvest. It is now (or was in November) expected to be up 4.3 percent over the 2007 harvest, at 1 357 168 tons.

Reported in the same publication, some encouraging figures about consumption (going against the gloomy predictions of some commentators) show domestic sales of natural wine with a 4.8 percent increase for the twelve months to the end of October 2007, compared to the corresponding period the previous year.

During the same period, exports of natural wine increased by a remarkable 14.3 percent. Projections are that sales of all types of  wine locally will continue to increase in 2008, though only by 1.4 percent. Exports are expected to grown by between 6 and 9 per cent. Less cheerful for producers is that the stock level at producer and private cellars at the end of 2008 is expected to be a substantial 469.8 million litres, some 15 million litres up on the figure a year earlier.