Wine and spirits company KWV has identified Africa and Asia as key markets for the future. Addressing the Exporters’ Club Western Cape as part of its centenary celebrations, Bernard van Tonder, KWV international sales executive, said planning for the next 100 years was no easy task in the current global environment and probably not possible, but the Asian markets were definitely a top priority for the next 20 years.
“China, Japan and SouthEast Asia all fall into the high-growth markets.” Van Tonder said there were three consumption levels in these markets – premium, mainstream and economy.
“In China alone we have a captive audience of 738 million consumers. Across the entire region it is around 1.3 billion people. If we break the numbers down in the various territories the astonishing factor is that the premium sector is where the biggest growth is expected,” he said.
“In China, we are estimating around 10% growth in the number of consumers in the premium sector over the next 20 years, in Japan it is estimated to be 46% and in the South East Asian markets around 11%.
” In contrast, the economy sector in these markets was declining, he said, with China estimated to go from 336m to 274m economy consumers.
CAPTION
Exporters in the Western Cape celebrated KWV’s centenary in style at an event held in the wine producer’s Cathedral Cellar in Paarl recently.
