The South African wine industry could face wine shortages within five years if sales continue to rise at the current rate, a leading South African producer has warned.

In 2008, total exports increased 12% to a record 405m litres but vineyard planting has not kept pace with increasing demand.

Merwe Botha, financial director at Distell told decanter.com, ‘We need to look at the demand and supply situation. There are signs that in the next five years the industry could face shortages in supply.

‘Producers have been under severe pressure because of margin and cashflow problems so they have not planted as much as they should have,’ he added.

Jo Mason, UK market manager for Wines of South Africa, agreed shortages might occur.

‘There isn’t a surplus of wine but we are still seeing exports increasing. If demand continues at the rate it is, there could be shortages in some areas,’ she said.

The total vineyard area have been fairly static since 2005, currently standing at 101,000ha.

Mason added, ‘Vineyard area has been very gradually increasing but there aren’t limitless expansion possibilities. There’s only another 40,000ha that could be planted.’

WATCH our brilliant new How to store wine video with Steven Spurrier

Check out our recommendations section for the ten best wines from The Sampler.

Follow us on Twitter

Written by Rebecca Gibb

Rebecca Gibb MW
Rebecca Gibb MW
Decanter Magazine & DWWA Judge

Rebecca Gibb MW is a wine journalist and editor who has also founded Bamboozled games, ‘the world’s first wine and spirit puzzle makers’. Having spent six years living in New Zealand, she has recently returned to her native north-east England. While in New Zealand, she became a Master of Wine, graduating top of her class and winning the Madame Bollinger medal for excellence in tasting. A former winner of both the UK’s young wine writer of the year and the Louis Roederer Emerging Wine Writer, her first book The Wines of New Zealand was published in 2018. She also runs wine events and has her own consultancy business The Drinks Project. She was a judge at the 2019 Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA).