South African businesspeople who exhibited their goods at the Sial Paris Food Products Exhibition are optimistic that the leads they generated there would soon materialise into actual transactions.
Through the Department of Trade, Industry, and Competition (the dtic), South African companies displayed their goods at the event.
Local businesses were among the more than 7,000 exhibitors from across the globe that pulled out all the stops to catch the attention of buyers, distributors, agents, and exporters who flocked to the Paris event in quest of unique items.
On Thursday, the businesses who had produced leads during the five-day exhibition returned home. Once they return to their workplaces, the laborious process of sifting the wheat from the chaff will begin in earnest.
“We are excited about the interest that various companies and businesspeople from across the globe have shown in our products. We subsequently managed to obtain about 30 leads.
“We are not worried about the amount of work and time that we will use sorting the leads and following up on them because we are optimistic that at least four or five of them are likely to develop into concrete and lucrative deals,” said the owner of the Stellenbosch-based Spicy Bulldog food company, David Stephens.
His products include whole-grain mustard, chutney, and hot sauce.
In the meanwhile, Debbie Ncube, the managing director of House of Natural Butter, was astonished by the interest her peanut butter products received from worldwide distributors and customers.
“Participation in this expo was an eye-opener for me as a businesswoman, who received this opportunity to exhibit on an international platform for the first time. Our product garnered a lot of interest amongst international buyers.
“From here, we will be proceeding to Brussels where we have a meeting with a Belgian company that would like to procure our peanut butter for their retail stores,” said an elated Ncube.
Roshni Morar, co-founder of Roska Artisan Ice Cream, a Johannesburg-based firm, was another first-time international exhibitor. The exposure her company earned by participating at Sial Paris exceeded her expectations.
“To me, just being here as part of the SA companies exhibiting at this huge show is a phenomenal experience that I will cherish for a long time. I am inspired because our product was received very well by people who visited our stand to enquire about it.
“But more importantly, I have met the right people from different parts of the world who expressed interest in our product. I am sure that the meetings that will ensue hereafter will bear positive results,” Morar said.
The international sales manager of Carmien Tea, Charl Rudman, said that his company’s participation at Sial Paris was advantageous since he was able to interact with both current and prospective customers.
“What was more interesting is that we saw buyers and distributors from across the world, as far as Brazil and Argentina. We saw a lot of interest from other countries that we did not expect.
“Overall, we have good leads, including two representatives of retail stores that showed real interest in doing some business with us,” said Rudman, whose company is based in Citrusdal in the Western Cape.