Wines of South Africa
(WOSA) CEO Su Birch has been lauded by the international drinks fraternity for
her role in promoting sustainability in the South African wine industry,
winning the 2013 The Drinks Business Green Awards Lifetime
Achievement Award.
The Drinks Business is a UK-based publication with an
international readership amongst drinks industry leaders. Its Lifetime
Achievement Green Award is the highest annual honour it bestows in what it
bills as "the
world’s largest programme to raise awareness of green issues in the drinks
trade and recognise and reward those who are leading the way in sustainability
and environmental performance."
Birch, who has been
WOSA CEO since 2000, emerged the winner at a London event yesterday (April 23,
2013) for having dedicated a significant part of her working life to
"environmental and/or ethical causes" and was acknowledged for her
significant role in both areas.
She is also a former
winner of both The Drinks Business Woman of the Year and the International
Wine and Spirit Competition’s Women in Wine Award, and last year was identified
as one of the ten most influential personalities in the world of wine by UK
market analysts Wine Intelligence.
Birch has played a key role in advancing South
Africa's reputation as one of the most progressive amongst wine-producing
nations in driving eco-sustainable wine production. Under the banner
“variety is in our nature” she has actively promoted the country’s competitive
positioning in producing a rich variety of wine styles. She is also credited
with spearheading South Africa’s far-reaching Biodiversity & Wine
Initiative (BWI) that has seen producers set aside substantially more land for
conservation than the equivalent of the national vineyard.
She has been one of the major advocates of the
country’s Sustainability Seal, the first industry-wide initiative of its kind
anywhere in the world, to promote production integrity from the vineyard to the
consumer. This was followed by the introduction last year of an Ethical Seal,
also the first of its kind, that confirms the implementation of fair labour practices by wine
producers.
At an international level she has also been one of the
key drivers for co-operation amongst normally competing New World
wine-producing countries, playing an important part in bringing South Africa,
New Zealand, the US, Chile and Argentina together at the annual international
trade fair ProWein, where the countries annually present a collective showcase.
The Beautiful South is
an extension of this approach in which Argentina, Chile and South Africa will
present their first combined trade exhibition in the UK in September. She has
been a prime mover in its conception and organisation.
Birch says the
exhibition in London will be her WOSA swansong as she plans to leave the
organisation soon after to pursue a personal project that, she says, she has
been deferring for "too long".
"The lifetime achievement is a high note on which
to announce my plan to leave WOSA later this year. I shall be leaving the
organisation with a sound international team in place at the same time that the
country has evolved into a significant player in world wine markets, well on
its way to capturing and building on new opportunities."
She said a search for a successor was to be conducted
as a priority over the coming weeks. She will remain in her position till the
end of September. This is both to hand over to the new incumbent and to
allow her to oversee The Beautiful South.
After a brief "sabbatical", Birch plans to
focus on the development of cost-effective marketing solutions for a range of
industries. "Rising costs and a volatile exchange rate are forcing South
Africans to work smarter and with greater agility in order to be heard in an
increasingly competitive environment, whether locally or internationally.
Working to very tight budgets demands stringent discipline but also encourages
creative problem-solving. This is where I believe I can play a meaningful
role."
