Three Western Cape wine companies are on a mission to increase the volumes of the South African wine exports to Mozambique. Thandi Wines, La Rid Mal and Bayede Marketing are part of the 25 businesses that will be showcasing their products and services at the the Maputo International Trade Fair, commonly known as FACIM, which is currently taking place (from 29 August – 4 September 2016.)
FACIM is a popular international multi-sectoral trade fair held annually to showcase Mozambique as an attractive destination for trade and investment.Last year the trade fair attracted 680 foreign companies from 31 countries.
The participation of the companies in the exhibition is funded by the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) through its Export Marketing and Investment Assistance Scheme. The purpose of the scheme is to assist local companies to contribute in increasing exports of the South African manufactured goods to various parts of the world.
“We are looking forward to the exhibition as we are confident that Mozambicans and other exhibitors and visitors will be impressed with our range of wines and place orders. This will enable us to export wines to Mozambique, thereby creating a new market for our products resulting in our company increasing its production and the number of employees,” says Malcolm Green, the Managing Director of the Paarl-based La Ric Mal where ten people are currently employed.
He reckons that finding a market for the SA wines in Mozambique will not be a difficult mission as wine consumption in the country is good and the SA wines are popular there.
The Chief Executive Officer of Bayede Marketing, Antoinette Vermooten says participating in FACIM is in line with her company’s strategy of focussing on the African continent in their search for export markets.
“I believe our brand is resonating very well with the African continent due to its history and the quality of wines that we produce. We are already exporting to Angola, Zambia, Ghana, Mauritius and Uganda. We have used platforms provided by the dti to promote our brand, showcase our products and to penetrate these markets. We are confident that FACIM will also yield positive results for us in our quest to conquer the African continent with our brand,” says Vermooten whose company has eight full-time and more than sixty part-time employees.
The Managing Director of Thandi Wines, Vernon Henn says his main objective of travelling to Mozambique is to find partners in the form of importers, retailers or wholesalers who will be prepared to import his company’s wines and sell them in Mozambique.
“We would like to start penetrating the Mozambique market on a small scale by finding a company that is already importing wines from South Africa and work with them to export our wines to that country. We are satisfied about our expansion into the African continent as our wines are already being sold in Cameroon, Gabon and Zimbabwe,” says Henn whose Stellenbosch-based company has a full-time staff complement of six people.
According to the Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies, one of the dti’s strategic goals is to grow the SA manufacturing sector in order to promote industrial development, job creation, investment and exports.
“In order to achieve this objective, the department embarks on international missions and participate in targeted international trade exhibitions in order to promote exports of South African value-added goods and services to increase market share in markets in various regions of the world. This will enable South African businesses to access global markets which will lead to them increasing their production, thereby growing the SA economy and creating employment,” says Davies.
