South African farmers will likely produce 1.42 million metric tons of wine grapes in 2014 – a 4.7% decrease from 2013’s record harvest of 1.49 million metric tons according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service. South Africa is set to bottle 1.1 billion liters of wine this year – down slightly from the 1.2 billion liters shipped the previous year. Last year’s harvest and the significant 19% depreciation of the rand against the U.S. dollar allowed South Africa to ship 518 million liters of wine to make up for gaps caused by a poor European crop. Total export volumes increased 26% year over year in 2013 with exports to the UK climbing 21%, exports to Germany climbing 24%, and exports to Russia climbing 18%. With a crop of 1.42 million tons, the additional 4.1% continuing depreciation of the rand coming into 2014, and a shift to bulk exports, South Africa is expected to ship approximately 500 million liters of wine this year.
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