Wine farms in the Overstrand are deeply upset about the ban on alcohol sales. According to Carolyn Martin co-owner of Creation Wines, wine farms are very distinct from other categories of the agricultural sector.
“Banning wine sales, with no notice and little if any consultation with the wine farming community will have serious consequences for the wine industry, and more so for the smaller-scale farms, which include BEE enterprises.” Josef Dreyer, Winemaker at Raka Wines, says his wine farm already had a huge debtors book from the restaurants pre-Covid, and with its not trading has scarcely managed to honour its debts.
“There is already a rise in liquidations among our suppliers, so we will have to brace ourselves for a storm ahead. We incurred much expense to get wines bottled and labelled, and now we can’t trade again – so it is a escalation. We will prepare for 2021 harvest as per usual – what else can we do? We cannot keep on expecting revenue from tourism if there is no tourism.”
Judy Bakker, General and Financial Manager at Bouchard Finlayson in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley, says the ban has had a significantly negative impact on the farm’s sales and cash flow. “It has been challenging, but we remain positive and focus on keeping our staff safe and supporting our customers where we can.”
She agrees the entire local industry has been affected in many ways, including significant downward-price pressure on bulk and bottled wine.Dreyer says he understands there is a correlation between alcohol sales and increases in trauma cases, “but surely not all alcohol users end up in the ER!” Martin describes the ban announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa as unreasonable and unfair.