South Africa-India Trade Relations Deepen
Two KwaZulu-Natal companies are on a mission to explore export opportunities for their products in India. Royalty Agri-Biz, which is based in Pietermaritzburg and Your Best Choice, which is located in Pinetown, will be part of the Outward Trade and Investment Mission to New Delhi and Mumbai in March 2019.
The mission is organised and funded by the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti). The purpose of the mission is to increase the trade of value-added goods and investment between South Africa and India.
The Director of Royalty Agri-Biz, Ms Fatima Cele says the trip to India could not have come at a more opportune time as the company is in the process of expanding by acquiring a tannery that will enable it to produce leather and leather products for the export market.
“We are currently sourcing cow hides from the local farmers and various communities. We then process them and supply people who make drums, shields, cushions and carpets. But we have decided to look at the bigger market and produce leather for the manufacturing of leather products. As part of our process to grow our business and achieve our objectives, we are in the process of acquiring a fully-fledged tannery from which we will be able to produce leather and leather products for the export market,” says Cele.
She also said that she will be using the trip to India to learn about the Indian leather market and to explore possible opportunities that her company can take advantage of and export leather and leather products to India.
“India is big in leather manufacturing and the mission will provide us with an opportunity to get to know how their market functions and how we can penetrate it as suppliers of leather or the actual leather products. We have undertaken a visit to China where we identify possible export opportunities and we are excited that our plans to export our products will gradually fall into place as we are optimistic about the India trip,” adds Cele.
The Chief Executive Officer of Your Best Choice, Mr Subasen Naidoo says his company is on the verge of breaking into the export market after shipping off samples of his moringa products to the United States of America, Colombia, Brazil, Ghana. Australia and the United Kingdom.
“We attended the Americas Food and Beverage Show in Miami through the assistance of the dti in October last year where we got a good order from Ghana and generated a number of good trade leads in America and other countries. We are excited that these leads are steadily developing into concrete deals. As a result, we are on the verge of signing contracts in Brazil and the US,” says Naidoo.
He adds that he will be targeting the fast food market in India and is confident that their proudly South African, organically-produced moringa Ice Tea and sugar-free energy drink will receive a warm reception in the country.
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Sources: [1], [2]. Image sources: [1], [2].
