The department of agriculture, rural development & land reform has gazetted a new regulation that will allow grape juice to be used in cider and the excess wine from lockdown liquor sales bans to be marketed.
The industry has more than 200-million litres of wine in storage in addition to the 450-million litres it usually keeps. This is because wine could not be sold and initially exported due to a range of lockdown bans totalling 23 weeks in 2020 and 2021.
The excess wine will be sold as wine and instead grapes harvested next season that are earmarked for wine production will be turned into grape concentrate and the juice sold to cider manufacturers.
The previous regulation defining cider said that cider must consist of at least 75% apple juice while the rest could be pear juice.
Wine industry body Vinpro, which represents about 596 wine farms and many wine grape growers, had lobbied for 12 months for the cider solution. Vinpro CEO Rico Basson said the industry had investigated all options to deal with excess wine and decided on this way out after tests showed using grape juice in cider does not change the flavour of the alcoholic drink.
Stellenbosch-based Distell, which has been bought by European brewer Heineken subject to competition authority approval, is the world’s second-largest producer of cider and Savanna is the world’s fastest-growing brand, it has said.
Grape growers will turn a small profit on the sale of concentrate for cider, making the solution sustainable albeit not highly profitable.
Another reason for the excess wine is that travel bans resulted in less wine being sold during the pandemic. In a normal year, wine tourism, which includes visits to wine farms, accounts for 15% of wineries’ total turnover. As vineyards are planted up to seven years in advance, farmers cannot reduce the amount of grapes grown amid decreasing demand or excess supply.
Basson said he was initially unsure that the plan and lobbying would succeed. The alcohol industry’s campaigns against lockdown alcohol sales bans had failed with Vinpro and brewer SAB losing four court cases.
Christo Conradie, Vinpro manager of wine business, said the change to cider is aligned with international standards and the quality of SA cider products will not be affected.
The use of grape concentrate in cider manufacturing has the potential to replace a significant amount of apple juice concentrate that is mainly imported. This reduces the risk and cost associated with importing apple juice concentrate while supporting the local grape-producing industry.
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