Currently, South Africa is the only country in the world whose lockdown regulations include a ban on all liquor sales.
New indications point toward an easing of those regulations to take effect this Friday, May 1st, when Level Five status is expected to shift to Level Four where wine as a sector will be permitted to function again. A local wine industry task force, which has received vocal support from an international network of industry partners, has been advocating ceaselessly for the change.
In practice, Level Five means no transport of alcohol, which means there’s no way for wine to move from a winery directly to a consumer anywhere in the country, or from an inland winery to a port at the coast. For a country that exports up to half of its wine production, Level Five causes a weekly financial impact of approximately R-200 million in lost wine exports alone.
Here are three specific instances where the impact of Level Five status are being felt most acutely in the South African wine industry right now.
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