PRETORIA— South African companies are preparing themselves to make a good impression at the Sial Paris International Food Products Exhibition which will take place in France on Oct 15-19.
Twenty six companies producing processed foods, non-alcoholic beverages, preserved foods, spices, soups, deep frozen products, health and organic products, sweets, sea food and gourmet food products will participate in the exhibition.
The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic) has set up a South African National Pavilion in which the companies will be showcasing their products and services.
Sial Paris is a popular trade show which is regarded as the world’s leading exhibition network with unrivalled geographic coverage of Europe and the rest of the world.
To this end, the South African business people are excited about the prospects of participating in the fair and are looking forward to putting their best feet forward in regards to showcasing the best of the food products that South Africa has to offer the international community.
The Managing Director of House of Natural Butter, Debra Ncube, whose company is based in Cape Town, says her groundwork before departing for France is already bearing fruits as she has managed to set up meetings with at least three distributors to market her products, which comprises 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. South Africa is trending as the hub of highly valued macadamia products and we are hoping to ride on the crest of that wave,” Ncube said.
The owner of the Stellenbosch-based Spicy Bulldog food company, David Stephens, says all his preparations are going according to plan and he is looking forward to his company’s first international exhibition.
“My products, which consists of wholegrain mustard, chutney and chilli sauce, have been shipped to France already.
“My mission is to find importers in Paris so that I can export my products to Europe. I am optimistic that I will succeed. I am already making arrangements with the local production facilities that I can make use of to increase my production in order to service the new orders,” Stephens said.
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. Part of her preparations for Sial has been upgrading her production factory to comply with the required standards for an exporter.
“We have been working hard installing new equipment in order to get our production facility to be in line with the requirements of an international exporter so that we can obtain the required health and safety certificate.
“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,” Danisa said.
For Wendy Mpendulo, the Chief Executive Officer of Miante Manufacturing, which is a Pretoria-based company producing healthy on the go tasty filling snacks, Sial Paris will provide her with an opportunity to increase her company’s export market.
“We are currently exporting our products to eSwatini, although at a very limited scale. We are travelling to France with the hope of finding a distributor, agent or big companies such as retail or hotel chains that can 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,” she said.
Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK