The South African businesspeople representing the 26 companies that will be participating in the SIAL Paris International Food Products Exhibition in France this week are relishing the prospects of exporting their products to Europe.
The group will depart for France on Wednesday with optimism that SIAL Paris – where they will be showcasing their products from 15-19 October 2022 – will open doors for them to export their goods to France and the rest of Europe.
The South African businesspeople will be among the more than 7 000 exhibitors from all over the world who will go all out to attract the attention of buyers, distributors, agents and exporters who descend on the biennial trade show in search of mouth-watering and distinct products.
The participation of the SA companies has been made possible by support provided by the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic) through its Export Marketing and Investment Assistance (EMIA) scheme, whose objective is to develop export markets for South African products and services and to recruit new foreign direct investments into the country.
The department has set up a South African National Pavilion in which the SA companies will be showcasing their products and services.
This is part of the dtic’s efforts to promote exports of South African value-added goods, and services through strategic export promotion mechanisms to increase the market share in targeted high-growth markets and sustain market share in traditional markets.
Assistance provided to the companies to seek export markets for their products across the globe is line with Integrated National Export Strategy, which South Africa’s blueprint towards ensuring export promoting industrialisation to spur economic growth in the country.
The strategy aims to increase South Africa’s capacity for exporting diversified and value-added goods and services to various global markets.
The participation of SA companies in SIAL Paris is expected to contribute in the growth of the SA’s exports to France which have increased from about R8.7 billion in 2020 to R11.6 billion in 2021.
The Chief Executive Officer of Miante Manufacturing, Wendy Mpendulo is excited that SIAL Paris will provide her with an opportunity to increase the export market of her Pretoria-based company, which is producing healthy on-the-go tasty snacks.
“We are currently exporting our products to eSwatini. We are travelling to France with the hope of finding a distributor, agent or big companies such as retail or hotel chains that will be interested in importing our products to France and other countries in Europe and beyond.
“We are optimistic that we will succeed as we are already doing some social media marketing as part of creating awareness about our company and products targeting the buyers that will be attending the exhibition,” said Mpendulo.
SIAL Paris will also provide the CEO of Energy Supplements, Serita Gericke, with the first opportunity to showcase her products, which include collagen water, on an international platform.
“We are convinced that our collagen water, which is becoming popular due to its scientifically-proven health benefits, will attract the attention of distributors and importers during the exhibition in France. We are targeting Europe as our potential market, particularly France and the United Kingdom. We have already received some enquiries that we are hoping to follow up on during the exhibition,” said Gericke.
SIAL Paris will be the first international exhibition experience for Thabisile Danisa who is the Managing Director of Incasa Foods, a Durban-based condiments and sauces producing company.
“The trip to France could not have come at a more opportune time as we are implementing our strategy of growing our business. We are hoping we will be able to secure clients during or after the exhibition so that we can start exporting our products to Europe,” said Danisa.
The Managing Director of House of Natural Butter, Debra Ncube, whose company is based in Cape Town, said she is looking forward to a successful trip to France where she has already set up meetings with three distributors to market her products, which comprise peanut, macadamia and almond butter.
“Our main objective for travelling to France is to strike deals during or after the exhibition that will enable us to penetrate the European market. We are confident that our high-value agro-processing products will attract the attention of the distributors, particularly the macadamia butter,” Ncube said.
