JOHANNESBURG, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- South Africa will send representatives of 26 companies to attend Sial Paris 2022, the world's leading food innovation exhibition, in France this week, South Africa's Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) said Monday.
The exhibition will take place from Oct. 15-19. The DTIC said the South African companies would leave for France Wednesday and they would interact with more than 7,000 exhibitors from all over the world, including buyers, distributors, agents and exporters.
The DTIC said they are helping the South African companies to take part in the event to enable them to showcase their products and services to penetrate markets in various parts of the world.
"We are traveling 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," said CEO of Miante Manufacturing Wendy Mpendulo.
Mpendulo said her Pretoria-based company, Miante Manufacturing, a snack-making company, currently exports its products to Eswatini.
Dabisile Danisa, managing director of the Durban-based condiments and sauces-producing company, expressed optimism about the show. She said they hope to get deals or leads which would result in them exporting their products to France, Europe and other parts of the world.
Debra Ncube, managing director of House of Natural Butter based in Cape Town, said she has scheduled some meetings with three distributors. Her company produces peanut, macadamia and almond butter. "Our main objective for traveling 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.
The South African government supports companies after rigorous vetting to take part in international exhibitions including the China International Import Expo, which is the world's first dedicated import exhibition and will take place in Shanghai from Nov. 5 to 10. ■
