South Africa is a net exporter of wine at roughly 11.5:1 on foreign-trade flows. In 2024, SA exported $647.9 million of wine of fresh grapes (HS 2204) and imported just $55.9 million from foreign partners. The United Kingdom alone took 21.7% of the export trade, with the EU bloc (Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, France) taking another ~29%. About 85% of the trade moved by sea; ~14% by air. Bottled wine in containers ≤2L dominates (68% of value), with bulk and sparkling making up most of the rest.
Source: UN Comtrade, reporter South Africa, HS 2204 (and sub-headings 220410, 220421, 220422, 220429, 220430). Data verified May 2026. See full methodology + caveats at the bottom of this page.
SA wine exports by sub-heading, 2019–2024 (USD)
Wine of fresh grapes splits into five Comtrade sub-headings. Each describes a distinct product (and a distinct freight profile — bulk-tank vs palletised cases vs glass-fragile sparkling). HS 2205 (vermouth and flavoured wine) is intentionally excluded from these wine totals — it is a separate Comtrade chapter heading and a much smaller trade ($12.2M of SA exports in 2024). It is noted in the methodology footnote rather than rolled into wine.
| HS code | Description | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 220421 | Bottled wine, containers ≤2L | $459,788,020 | $425,830,349 | $502,512,334 | $467,622,215 | $431,996,469 | $442,470,696 |
| 220429 | Bulk wine, containers >10L (incl. tank/flexitank) | $133,200,274 | $129,499,260 | $173,276,485 | $161,166,776 | $129,074,115 | $140,663,740 |
| 220410 | Sparkling wine | $20,373,747 | $19,963,093 | $28,223,072 | $26,320,168 | $26,506,134 | $32,662,354 |
| 220422 | Wine, containers 2–10L | $46,994,221 | $46,943,011 | $44,060,286 | $38,789,482 | $31,518,666 | $31,792,155 |
| 220430 | Grape must (unfermented) | $856,949 | $896,906 | $1,143,393 | $726,064 | $332,757 | $283,117 |
| TOTAL | Wine of fresh grapes (HS 2204) | $661,213,211 | $623,132,619 | $749,215,570 | $694,624,705 | $619,428,141 | $647,872,062 |
In 2024 the trade split was: bottled (220421) 68.3%, bulk (220429) 21.7%, sparkling (220410) 5.0%, 2–10L (220422) 4.9%, grape must (220430) <0.1%. Bulk vs bottled is the single most consequential split for logistics: bulk moves in 24,000-litre flexitanks; bottled moves as palletised glass with very different stowage, temperature and breakage profiles.
Export trend — SA wine of fresh grapes, 2019–2024 (and 2025 provisional)
Exports peaked in 2021 ($749M) on post-COVID restocking, softened in 2023 ($619M), and recovered to $648M in 2024. 2025 is shown as a provisional point — the figure is a complete annual aggregate (Comtrade release dated 15 May 2026) but is subject to revision as further partner data is reconciled. It is shown only as a trajectory indicator and is excluded from all headline figures and the sub-headings table.
SA wine trade balance — exports vs foreign imports
South Africa is overwhelmingly a net exporter of wine. Foreign imports are dominated by French wine (champagne, claret, burgundy) and Italian still wine, with a long tail of small partners. The self-loop ($0.25M in 2024 — 0.45% of imports, see methodology) is excluded from the foreign-import series.
Bulk vs bottled — the freight profile of the trade
The bulk-vs-bottled split is the dominant logistics fact about South African wine exports. Bottled (220421) and bulk (220429) together account for ~90% of export value every year. They are fundamentally different shipments: bottled is glass, fragile, palletised, often climate-sensitive on long-haul; bulk is flexitank in a standard 20-foot container, food-grade, weight-rated.
Top destinations for SA wine exports, 2024 (USD)
Wine of fresh grapes (HS 2204) only. The top 10 partners account for 68.3% of the export trade; the United Kingdom alone accounts for 21.7%.
| Rank | Destination | USD 2024 | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United Kingdom | $140,264,307 | 21.7% |
| 2 | Germany | $50,353,418 | 7.8% |
| 3 | Netherlands (entrepôt) | $48,698,834 | 7.5% |
| 4 | USA | $38,486,553 | 5.9% |
| 5 | Namibia | $38,054,381 | 5.9% |
| 6 | Canada | $29,280,688 | 4.5% |
| 7 | Belgium (entrepôt) | $26,900,402 | 4.2% |
| 8 | Sweden | $25,567,717 | 3.9% |
| 9 | Latvia (entrepôt) | $25,297,687 | 3.9% |
| 10 | Denmark | $19,319,413 | 3.0% |
| Top-10 total | $442,223,400 | 68.3% | |
Top origins for SA wine imports, 2024 (USD, foreign partners only)
Wine of fresh grapes (HS 2204) imports are dominated by France — champagne, premium claret and burgundy — with Italy a distant second. The self-loop ($0.25M, see methodology) is excluded.
| Rank | Origin | USD 2024 | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | France | $43,145,104 | 77.2% |
| 2 | Italy | $6,078,848 | 10.9% |
| 3 | Australia | $2,283,551 | 4.1% |
| 4 | Portugal | $1,922,789 | 3.4% |
| 5 | Spain | $793,909 | 1.4% |
| 6 | USA | $547,173 | 1.0% |
| 7 | Germany | $217,860 | 0.4% |
| 8 | New Zealand | $140,527 | 0.3% |
| 9 | Chile | $124,060 | 0.2% |
| 10 | Argentina | $94,352 | 0.2% |
| Top-10 total | $55,348,173 | 99.1% | |
Mode of transport, 2024 (SA wine exports)
Comtrade records mode of transport at the customs-declaration level. For 2024 SA wine exports under HS 2204:
- Sea: $550.3M (84.9%) — the dominant mode for both bottled and bulk wine
- Air: $92.2M (14.2%) — predominantly bottled wine, often higher-value SKUs or time-sensitive parallel imports
- Road or rail: $5.4M (0.8%) — almost entirely SACU traffic (Namibia, Botswana)
- Not specified / other: ~$3,000 (negligible)
The ~85% sea figure is a stable, decade-long pattern. Air freight is structurally limited by per-kilo cost against wine’s low value-density at typical price points.
Related JLog references
- Wine export from South Africa — service hub — JLog’s service overview for South African wine producers: bonded warehousing, SARS clearance, international wine freight, bottled vs bulk freight choice.
- Get a wine-freight quote — SARS clearance, container booking, Cape Town port and OR Tambo air export.
- JLog Insights — trade-data analysis on SA exports across art, wine, citrus, mining and more.
Methodology & source
Source: UN Comtrade v1 API (reporter: South Africa, HS 2204 — wine of fresh grapes). Export values are FOB, imports CIF, all values USD, per Comtrade convention. Period covers 2019–2024 as the headline window (latest complete year); 2025 appears only as a provisional point in the trajectory chart, see Data status below.
Data status (applies to every year shown): the rows pulled for this page carry isReported=False in the Comtrade response — i.e., at the time of pull they were not flagged as direct South-African submissions to UN Comtrade. Comtrade derives and reconciles annual aggregates from available partner and submission data, and some lines carry a non-zero legacyEstimationFlag indicating estimated values (for HS 2204 we observed this on heading 220421, bottled wine). This pattern is consistent for SA across 2019–2025 in our pulls — it is not specific to 2025. Comtrade releases stabilise over the months following first publication as further partner data is reconciled, so recent years — especially 2025 — are more subject to revision than older years. The 2025 release we used here is dated 15 May 2026.
Filter applied: at the API-response level — only all-modes-of-transport (motCode=0), all-customs-procedures (customsCode=C00), no transit-partner (partner2Code=0) rows are summed. This avoids the duplicate sub-totals Comtrade returns for each mode/procedure slice. The transport-mode breakdown above is the only place this filter is relaxed (motCode varies).
“Wine of fresh grapes” = HS 2204 (and its five 6-digit children: 220410 sparkling, 220421 bottled ≤2L, 220422 wine 2–10L, 220429 bulk >10L, 220430 grape must). HS 2205 (vermouth and other flavoured wine of fresh grapes) is a separate Comtrade heading and is excluded from these totals. For reference, 2024 SA vermouth (HS 2205) exports were ~$12.2M and imports ~$0.3M — small in absolute terms and a different product category.
Partner caveat (entrepôt routing): Comtrade records the first foreign destination, not the final consumer. The Netherlands, Belgium and Latvia are well-documented re-export / bonded-warehouse routing points for wine; their share of SA wine “exports” in this dataset reflects routing rather than end-market demand. Final-consumer demand is concentrated in the UK, EU member states and (via Latvia) eastern European markets.
Self-loop: Comtrade records a small SA-to-SA “import” component (~$0.25M in 2024, 0.45% of imports) and effectively zero export self-loop. The 2024 foreign-imports figure of $55.9M used in the TL;DR and the trade-balance chart excludes the self-loop. Headline-imports figures in the sub-headings table above include any self-loop component (negligible at chapter level).
Re-exports: Comtrade exports include any re-exports of imported wine. For South African wine this is structurally small (the country is a producer-exporter); the entrepôt routing above relates to destination countries, not SA-side re-exports. Re-exports estimated <0.5% of headline exports.
Verified: 23 May 2026. BQ view = jlog-seo-data.comtrade.sa_flows_totals. Live API spot-check (reporter 710, HS 2204 chapter, 2024) ties to the BQ view to the dollar: exports $647,872,062 vs $647,872,062; imports $56,119,277 vs $56,119,277. Pull script + raw JSON cache available on request. Analysis by JLog.
Exporting wine from South Africa?
See JLog’s wine export service → SARS clearance, bonded transit, Cape Town port and OR Tambo air export, container vs flexitank freight choice, EU and UK trade lanes. Or request a wine-freight quote.
Trade balance chart: 2024 imports stripped of the $0.25M SA-to-SA self-loop. Pre-2024 import series uses headline imports (any self-loop component is negligible at chapter level — well under 1%). Mode-of-transport figures from raw sa_flows by mot_code; all other figures from sa_flows_totals (motCode=0).