New chair of SA Wine Industry Council takes over 17 October 2006

Kader Asmal focuses on consolidation and domestic marketing

Kader Asmal MP took over on 1 October 2006 as chairperson of the South African Wine Industry Council (Sawic).The Council emerged a few months back from the restructuring of the SA Wine and Brandy Company, with Johan van Rooyen continuing as CEO.

In a recent statement, he suggests that ‘Fragmentation is one of the major factors preventing the South African wine industry from reaching its full potential’. Sawic, he says, ‘will harness different bodies and energies to create a unified vehicle through which the wine industry can increase its competitiveness and grow to the economic pillar it deserves to be.’

The Council is intended as a medium for confronting major wine industry issues including transformation, addressing growth opportunities, and  ‘streamlining relations between the industry, government and all relevant stakeholders to stimulate competitiveness and development in the local and global market’.

In his statement, Asmal speaks of Sawic as enabling the wine industry ‘to drive two crucial initiatives’ – wine tourism and marketing wine amongst South African people. Wines of South Africa (Wosa), hitherto dealing only with external representation, ‘will be mandated by the SA Wine Council to implement these two functions’. Professor Asmal says that this should have happened long ago, and that focusing on exports was a short-sighted strategy. ‘[F]or the greater good of the whole industry – [not just] for selected producers at the high-end of the market – South Africa’s ventures into foreign wine stores have to be complemented by energetic attempts to attract more local consumers,” he says.

'The SA Wine Council is committed to developing local markets and generating initiatives for wine tourism, which is currently a R4bn a year industry. If we want to capitalise on the growth in the tourism market as well as the potential of the 2010 World Cup, wine tourism must receive top-priority at local and national levels. Together with my colleagues at the SA Wine Council, as well as with the SA Wine Industry Trust, I hope to use our collective influence to address the relevant authorities to ensure wine tourism gets all the support and assistance it deserves.’

Consolidation too
According to Asmal, Sawic structures allow for much needed consolidation within the industry. And the Council’s new Advisory Forum, including representatives from a wide range of stakeholder groups (from farmworkers to VinPro), ‘will play a major role in future developments and strategic direction …  advis[ing] the SA Wine Council on strategic national issues and also those at grassroots level.  The Forum will also assist in defusing sensitive and difficult matters by making recommendations to the Council.’

CEO Johan van Rooyen, welcomes the new chairperson. ‘Prof Asmal’s passion for the wine industry, influence at local and national government level and positive, energetic approach to the task at hands is welcomed by the whole industry,’ he says.

• This article prepared from a press release issued by Media Vision Consultants