Cooperation and competition: The case of the Western Cape wine cluster

Abstract

A major challenge facing the South African wine industry has been the economic repositioning of the sector, which since 1994 has moved away from a highly regulated domestic environment. The increasing integration of the local industry into international markets and global value chains has been accompanied by the industry's deregulation and restructuring. From the production focus on a limited range of low value-added varieties produced for domestic tastes and to meet monopoly quotas, producers have shifted to planting noble cultivars suited to various international tastes. Despite the lack of growth in traditional Western European markets, new world producers like South Africa have successfully competed and secured new market share. The Western Cape wine industry is ranked as the second-largest contributor to the Western Cape economy. The thesis explores the effect of cluster governance and the coordination of strategic collective actions on the Western Cape wine cluster's competitiveness. The data has been gathered through a combination of documentary analysis and interviews conducted with the leadership and/or management of various industry organisations. A qualitative approach has been adopted in the data analysis and interpretation of the findings, with information gathered via a combination of documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews with key representatives of established industry bodies and key role-players in the Western Cape wine cluster.