South Africa anticipates reduced grape harvest in 2022

By James Lawrence

Published: 24 January, 2022

As vintage 2022 approches, South Africa's winegrowers are expecting a relatively small crop overall, when compared to last year.

According to industry body Vinpro, this is partly due to a programme of vineyard restructuring, with vines grubbed up in the Northern Cape, Olifants River and Robertson regions.

In addition, high disease pressures and heatwaves in certain regions have reportedly diminished the potential yield this year.

“At this early stage, we expect this year’s wine grape crop to be smaller than in 2021,” said Conrad Schutte, manager of Vinpro’s team of viticulturists. The body issues crop estimates together with industry body SAWIS (South African Wine Industry Information & Systems).

However, Vinpro noted that while the harvest is estimated to be smaller in most winegrowing regions, Stellenbosch, the Cape South Coast and Klein Karoo were expected to produce good quantities.

According to Vinpro, “due to a cool, wet spring, budding was seven to 14 days later than normal in general, but consistently good and even. The cool weather also delayed initial growth, but most vines caught up during flowering, which occurred about five days later than usual.”

The next crop estimate by viticulturists and producers will be released in the third week of February 2022.

As reported by Harpers, South Africa's quality-led growers, total exports of South African wine to the UK rose 20% by value and 12% in volume in 2021, according to the latest figures released by industry body SAWIS.

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