SA Companies Must Seize Opportunities Resulting from Increased Bilateral Trade with Germany |
| The Foreign Economic Representative of South Africa in Germany, Mr Jacob Moatshe has urged the South African companies to seize opportunities that will result from increased bilateral trade with Germany. He emphasised that while trade statistics were in favour of Germany, what was encouraging was that South Africa was narrowing the deficit at present. Moatshe said this during the official opening of the South African Pavilion at the Fruit Logistica trade show in Berlin, Germany.
Moatshe further elaborated that bilateral trade between South Africa and Germany has risen from €15-billion in 2016, to €18-billion in 2018. “To put some kind of perspective in the whole thing, you need to look at the position of Germany within the global space. It ranks as the third largest importer of agricultural and food products in the world and this places them as one of our key important markets within Europe. It also ranks as the second biggest global trade partner to South Africa after China and it is the fourth largest global economy,” he said. In addition, Moatshe highlighted that Germany was very keen to facilitate entry into their own market. “Recently, the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy in Germany together with the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) have launched a pilot programme called Fit for partnership with Germany. The programme is geared towards capacitating South African exporters to be export-ready to service the German and European markets at large. What it actually looks at is to do a kind of a hand-holding of the South African Companies. This will facilitate integration of SA companies into the global value chain. Already twenty of our local companies have participated in the programme last year October,” said Moatshe. He further expanded that in March South Africa will be hosting a Bi-National Commission with Germany, which is a platform that will look at implementing some of the key initiatives and programmes and to explore trade and investment opportunities. “The Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs from Germany will be leading a high level delegation including companies that will be participating in some of the Binational Commission activities including business forum. The Binational Commission is one of the key platforms that is geared to strengthening collaboration between South Africa and Germany in a number of sectors, including energy, trade, education and science and technology,” he said. The Fruit Logistica trade show is regarded as the world’s leading international trade fair for the fresh fruit and vegetable industry.
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