Christo Conradie, South Africa Wine’s Stakeholder Engagement, Market Access & Policy Manager, visited Brussels and London last week for the FIVS and WWTG (World Wine Trade Group – government and industry) 2025 intersessional meetings, where global industry leaders gathered to shape the future of wine. As the international voice of wine, FIVS plays a crucial role in advocating for a sustainable, fair, and innovative business environment. With the outlook for wine remaining challenging in 2025, these meetings focused on implementing FIVS’ new three-year strategy and aligning key actions with major global stakeholders such as the WHO, OIV, and Codex Alimentarius (addressing international food standards, guidelines and codes of practice to contribute to the safety, quality and fairness of this global food trade). South Africa Wine’s participation ensures that our industry’s interests are represented in these discussions, particularly in areas that impact our producers and exporters.
FIVS’ key priorities include:
- Wine & Society – Advocate for responsible consumption, implement evidence-based policies and recognise wine as a cultural asset.
- Wine & Sustainability – Strengthening the sector’s leadership in sustainable agricultural, environmental, and production practices.
- Trade & Global Economics – Ensuring fair market access and promoting sustainable global economic growth for the wine industry.
- Rules & Standards—Supporting fair, practical regulations that encourage innovation, quality, and competitiveness (policy matters).
This year’s meetings emphasised committee work plans (economic, environmental and social sustainability), ensuring FIVS effectively advocates for the global wine industry. Through targeted initiatives and unified advocacy, FIVS continues to drive meaningful engagement with key international bodies, reinforcing wine’s economic and cultural value in a rapidly evolving landscape.
From a WWTG perspective, several themes have been covered, ranging from electronic certification to EU labelling requirements, energy value calculations, coordination and regulation of no- and low-alcohol wine, health (United Nations and WHO – harmful consumption), sustainability, and feedback from observer countries like the UK, China, and Brazil.
A set of principles for governments to consider avoiding unjustified or unintended impacts to trade (technical trade barriers) for the wine sector related to sustainability policies were deliberated. Adherence to these principles (e.g. considering differing growing and production conditions and avoiding prescriptive, one-size-fits-all approaches) would likely result in measures that encourage competition, promote consumer choice, and support improved efficiency, resilience, and innovation.
In this space, we work very closely with our government partners: Olivia Poonah (Executive Manager, Wine Certification Authority – WO Scheme and IPW), Daniël Schietekat, and Wendy Jonker from DALRRD (Manager, Food Safety and Quality Assurance), who specifically handle wine industry and alcohol-related matters (Liquor Products Act), as well as the chief negotiators within the DTIC. Further and specific details will be communicated through the respective platforms and communication channels as and when applicable.