Top exporters awarded by Durban Chamber
Durban Chamber announced the 2018 winners and finalists of the KZN Exporter of the Year Awards.
AT the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Exporter of the Year Awards Banquet this month, the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry, in partnership with Transnet Port Terminals, announced the winners and finalists of the 2018 edition of the KZN Exporter of the Year Awards, in recognition of the outstanding performance of companies exporting from KwaZulu-Natal.
The award winners and finalists were announced at the awards banquet at Durban ICC Arena, which was designed to promote and honour businesses that have proved their excellence in robust international markets and to inspire other ambitious companies to export their goods and services.
The 2018 KZN Exporter of the Year Award winners were BBF Safety Group (Pty) Ltd (emerging category), Anderson Engineering Food & Chemical Equipment (Pty) Ltd (small category), Bata South Africa (medium category), Sumitomo Rubber South Africa (Pty) Ltd (large category), Amanzi Meters (Pty) Ltd (African category), Indian Ocean Export Company (Pty) Ltd (service providers category), Sappi Southern Africa Ltd (manufacturers category), Scenicel (Pty) Ltd t/a Avolands (agro-processing category), Hillcrest Aids Centre Trust t/a Woza Moya (creative industries category) Dormac Marine & Engineering (a division of Southey Holdings (Pty) Ltd (services sector category) and Kuehne + Nagel (Pty) Ltd (B-BBEE category).
The value of exports from KZN increased from R130 billion in 2016 to approximately R139 billion in 2017 with the KZN exports in 2017 accounting for 20.82 per cent of KZN’s gross domestic product (GDP) at basic prices.
During his welcome speech, Durban Chamber President, Musa Makhunga congratulated the winners and finalists as well as the nominees as exports are a crucial area of our economy that can drive economic growth and job creation in our region.
“Exports play a key role in our economy and can have positive knock-on effects on our regional economy as they can result in growth in our manufacturing and industrial sectors which can promote growth along the value chain and job creation. Additionally, KwaZulu-Natal has a strong trade partnership with countries such as Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, Burundi and Djibouti on the African continent and China, the United States of America, Japan, the United Kingdom, Netherlands, India and Germany in the rest of the world. We need to improve on those relationships and learn to replicate that success in other countries in order to improve our export profile as well as catalogue of products and services,” he said.
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For the past 18 years the title sponsor for the KZN Exporter of the Year Awards has been Transnet Port Terminals and other key strategic partners include Trade and Investment KwaZulu-Natal (TIKZN), Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA) and the Export Credit Insurance Corporation (ECIC).
During her keynote speech, Transnet Port Terminals (TPT) Chief Executive Nozipho Sithole spoke about TPT’s vision to become one of the world’s top five terminal operators in the next five years and how the exporters being recognised at this year’s KZN Exporter of the Year Awards can be part of this legacy.
At the Awards Banquet, the Durban Chamber CEO, Palesa Phili, launched the Durban Chamber’s new electronic Certificates of Origin solution, essCert, which provides all exporters with a secure, online tool for the application of electronic Certificates of Origin.
In closing, Phili invited all exporting companies and individuals that export their goods and services to other countries to enter the 19th edition of the KZN Exporter of the Year Awards for 2019.
“The awards create a platform for exporters to promote their businesses as well as their products and services and provides opportunities to capitalise on potential growth and revenue streams via access to new prospects,” concluded Phili.
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