The news that President Jacob Zuma is spending the week in Russia without his trade advisers is unlikely to reverse SA wine exports to that country which have fallen in half in the year to July. Overall, exports are 445 million litres, down sharply from the 520 million at the same time last year, a decline of 14%. No wonder Distell did not increase its annual dividend yesterday, even though operating profit was up 23%. Clearly Dick Rushton (below) expects hard times going forward.

Embarrassingly for WOSA, sales to the USA are off a massive 10 million litres, collapsing 37% to 17.4 million litres. This in a market WOSA is targeting. Likewise Sweden is in disarray, down 22%. What is to be done? Dick of Distell is betting on Africa, with R500 million pencilled in for expansion on the continent. When will WOSA even open an African office?

The performance of their existing network is shocking: flat in Germany and the Netherlands, up 8% in London but down 8% in Toronto, down 22% for the Gävle (Sweden) office and the Big Apple off 37%. Time for the board of WOSA to take a hard look at where WOSA “works” and where SA wine is sold. The alarm bells at 157 Dorp Street, Oke City, are deafening.

That WOSA, which seeks to promote SA wine, announces on their website “We regret we have NO visitor’s parking available” speaks volumes. You can’t invent this stuff.