Twenty Inch said:
I recently discovered that in many South African vineyards, the (poor, black) manual labourers are often paid up to half their wages in wine. This of course has a disastrous effect on their well-being. I'm never buying South African wine again.
What about fair trade wine then, eh?
Quoting the Guardian:
Rather than go purely down the Fairtrade route, Waitrose sought to develop its own framework to ensure farmworkers benefited from its business dealings in
South Africa. It established the Waitrose Foundation in 2005, with all companies in the supply chain, from the grocer to the importer, required to contribute to a fund used to finance social and educational projects. Last year it gathered 10.8m rand (£890,000).
The foundation supports 33 farms, including Avondale Wines in the Paarl valley, with another seven expected to join this year. The country's wine industry
was once dependent on virtual slave labour, with workers paid partly in alcohol. Johnathan Grieve said the
illegal practice was still in place when his family bought Avondale in 1996: "It was very run-down and an old-fashioned South African farm in every sense."
Also:
http://www.stellarorganics.com/fairtrade.php
http://www.fairhills.co.za
