“Skills and Quality Production in the South African Wine Industry”

There is a general consensus amongst industry experts that in order for the South African wineindustry to sustain the success it has enjoyed thus far in export markets like the United Kingdom,the Netherlands and Sweden and to become even more internationally competitive, its has toimprove the quality of its wine and move into higher price categories of the wine market. Skills’training has been highlighted as a significant component of a strategy to improve the quality ofSouth African wine and its competitiveness in world markets. The aim of this study was to findout how the South African wine industry is adapting to new vineyard practices necessary forquality production at farm level, especially as far as training of vineyard workers is concerned.Four theoretical perspectives are discussed in relation to the restructuring of the world agro-foodindustry, the question of quality and the issue of training as it relates the production of qualitywine. These theoretical perspectives are regulation theory, global commodity chain analysis,actor-network theory and the ergonomics perspective on the skills needed for the production ofquality wine. The focus of the study was on different kinds of producers, i.e. co-operativecellars, private cellars and estates. The research covered two of the main wine-producing areas,namely Paarl and the Robertson area. At each farm, interviews were conducted with the farmowner, farm manager or viticulturist as well as a number of workers. Interviews were alsoconducted with prominent wine makers, skills trainers and facilitators and other industry experts.This was done to gain a better understanding of the South African wine industry as well as themajor issues and debates as far as quality production and skills training are concerned. The studyfound that although there has been a general upgrading of skills in relation to new vineyardpractices for quality production, workers at the co-operatives and estates studied do not yetreceive the kind of in-depth knowledge which the theory argues is necessary for the productionof quality wine. The private cellars invest much more time and resources in the training of theirworkforce. As far as the private cellars and estates are concerned there is a correlation betweenthe quality of wine and training. The private cellars sell more than 50% of their wine in thepremium, super-premium, ultra-premium and icon categories of the international wine market.The estates sell 70% and more of their wine in the basic category. The co-operatives on the otherhand do not confirm the theory. In the absence of formal training, they manage to produce winethat competes well on an inter and intra-regional level. The evidence suggests that in a countrylike South Africa, in the context of a legacy of low education and literacy levels amongstworkers, repeated demonstration and strict supervision can compensate to a certain degree for alack of in-depth knowledge and discretion amongst workers.