January 25, 2008, 07:45
The South African wine industry reached a milestone during the past year by exporting a record breaking 300 million litres of wine to other countries.
The industry says the achievement is exciting given the difficulties that have been experienced during this period.
"We are quite excited that for the first time in the history of our industry, we crossed the 300 million litre mark. It is a record for us in exports especially in the light of last year where we had difficulty. We are very excited and elated about it," says spokesperson of the wines of South Africa, Andre Morgenthal.
In the meantime, one of the countries biggest wine and brandy producing companies, KWV, has announced a multi-million rand deal with a well established German wine company, Racke. The deal will allow KWV to expand its hold into the one of the world's biggest wine markets, Germany.
"It gives us a wonderful strong commercial base in Germany through Racke Engers and Franke, the new company, through which we believe we can grow our business in Germany," says KWV chief executive, Thys Loubser.
The deal is valued at about R83 million about R50 million of this is profit.
KWV has sold 87.5% of its entire stake of one of its under perfoming subsidiaries, Eggers and Franke to Racke. The remaining 12.5% of Eggers and Franke will merge with Racke to form Racke, Eggers and Franke.
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