The premises of DC Foods have become a hive of activity as the company finalises its expansion refurbishments. This due largely to massive growth of exports to the United States of America (USA).
The South African agro-processing company is housed at the Coega Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Gqeberha where it manufactures a range of frozen fruit and ice cream products exported mainly to the USA market, thanks to the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)
DC Foods was established in 1996, initially earmarking Japan as an export destination for its products, with a modest staff complement of 160 workers. As the company grew in leaps and bounds and needed bigger facilities, it eventually settled for the Coega SEZ as a new home for its manufacturing plant.
The company’s Financial Manager, Mr Marc Larter, says it is the benefits derived from AGOA that have put the company on a sharp upward trajectory. AGOA is a trade agreement that provides eligible sub-Saharan African countries with duty-free access to the USA market for over 1800 products, in addition to the more than 5000 products that are eligible for duty-free access under the Generalised System of Preferences programme.
Larter says although they export to other markets, it is in the US that their business has experienced the biggest growth.
“AGOA is a very important part of our business because it allows us to export our productinto North America without duties. In essence, if it did not exist, that would have been a major hindrance to our operations. We are currently supplying our product to Costco chain stores. Initially we had access to 35% of their stores, and a social media marketing campaign led to a massive demand for our sorbets, and now we supply all Costco stores in the US,” he said.
It is this growth that saw the company needing to expand their factory to create more space for manufacturing. The company has also had to adopt a double shift production system leading to a need for additional labour force.
Larter says in addition to other benefits, including tax incentives, security, coordinated systems of managing challenges like electricity supply, the location of the Coega SEZ has afforded them access to workers in the nearby Motherwell township. The presence of the company has led to the creation of 3 500 jobs for this community.
SEZs have become an important policy tool of choice for the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic) to accelerate industrialisation, development and growth.
DC Foods produces Island Way Sorbet which has taken the USA market by storm
Enquiries:
Bongani Lukhele – Director: Media Relations
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E-mail: BLukhele@thedtic.gov.za
Issued by: The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic)
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