Exports of South African wine dropped by 5% last year to a total of 368.8 million litres. But the value of exports saw a mere 2.4% decline.

The UK in particular is up for drinking pricier South-African wine. It continues to be South Africa’s largest wine export market, and last year bucked the wider global trend by snapping up 8% more wine from the country than the previous year, driven by higher-priced bulk exports.

Bulk wine accounted for 62% of total global export volumes. However, packaged wine was by far the leader in value terms, representing 77% of the sum fetched, with prices of wine climbing by 2.2%  per litre worldwide.

However, the Chinese market, which previously showed strong growth for South African wine, slowed considerably due to drawn-out Covid lockdowns, which led to the total export volume of wine to China slipping by 38% in volume and 26% in value.

Germany, which is the second largest export market for South African wine, also saw a significant decline of 9% in export volume and 17% in value.