South African wine futures exchange, GrapeX, has opened its doors for trading. The first virtual wine exchange worldwide will allow buyers to purchase wine direct from various South African estates, before it has reached maturation.
"GrapeX can outperform the current money-lenders market by providing a cheaper, more stable finance vehicle," says GrapeX MD Daniel Seidman. "The producer is essentially selling their unrealised assets for spot delivery of cash. This creates a form of secure loan for wine farms, repayable in the physical delivery of the wine."
The company says customers will benefit from cheaper rare wine, and from the ability to make money from the exchange by trading futures with other GrapeX users.
GrapeX intends to expand its system offshore to other developing nations with a good wine reputation, such as Chile. "We want to show the Spanish, Italians and French what`s going on down here," says Seidman. It is also investigating listing other products, such as port.
Wine estates already on board include De Villiers Reserve, Bernheim Wines, Naledi, Sejana, Longridge, Spier Private Collection, Bay View and Savanha.
Darling Cellars, Hamilton Russell, Kanonkop, Meerlust, Ken Forrester, and other estates are in talks with GrapeX.
External links:
www.thegrapexchange.com
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