The average primary wine grape producer’s profit margins have not improved since 2009, new research by economists at VinPro, a service organisation for South African wine producers, shows.

While bigger producers still achieve sustainable production of wine grapes from a financial point of view, smaller producers still find themselves in a cost-price squeeze, a major threat to the sustainability of their business.

This report is based on last year’s crop. The authors of the survey – entitled, “Production cost of wine grapes and producer profitability: top performers in difficult times” – are VinPro agricultural economists Gert van Wyk and Franco le Roux.