Becoming South Africa’s sixth-largest export market for packaged wines by volume, Chinese imports of South African-produced wines continue to accelerate, hitting 11-million litres in 2014, the Western Cape government (WCG) said on Friday.

This comes as the province revealed that global exports of South African wines had grown from 50-million litres a year in 1994 to 500-million litres a year in 2014.
 
Driving a focused strategy to sustain the growth of imports by China, a high-level delegation from the WCG, led by Premier Helen Zille and Economic Opportunities Minister Alan Winde, this week officially visited the Asian State to promote the province’s wine offering in the key market.

The strategy – dubbed Project Khulisa – saw the South African group on Wednesday briefing Chinese media on the province's plans to boost wine exports to the Asian country, as well as engaging in a networking session for South African and Chinese businesses, which was hosted by the Hong Kong branch of Wines of South Africa.

Zille and Winde also met with one of China's biggest importers of Western Cape wine, Perfect China, which had, over the past three years, imported ten-million bottles of South African wine into China.

The company, which had more than 10 000 outlets in China, planned to host a wine training workshop for its staff in the Western Cape next year.

Zille told the media on Wednesday that South Africa remained one of the world's most unique wine destinations.

“Ours is the only country to produce the Pinotage cultivar . . . [and is] one of only a few countries to have launched a traceability seal, which guarantees that wine was produced ethically – an important feature for the Chinese market, which prioritises high-quality offerings and food safety,” she commented.
 
Zille earlier told South African and Chinese businesses that growing trade with China was a priority of the WCG, while Winde confirmed that China Customs statistics for the first half of the year were “promising”.

“We have doubled our market share and our value share is up 104%. Through Project Khulisa, we aim to double the export of wine to China by 2025. If the current trend continues, I am confident we will reach that goal,” he remarked.