South African traders see India as best overseas market

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SME Times News Bureau | 24 Nov, 2014
India's booming economy and rising disposable incomes are major draws for small traders from South Africa who are participating in this year's ongoing India International Trade Fair (IITF), hoping to bag lucrative orders from affluent Indians, many of whom "don't even bargain".

According to the South African traders, especially those who are representing various protected tribes, the trade in many other countries has slowed down, denying them a reliable platform for their products. The fact that China is a now a global manufacturing hub and not too keen on buying products from other countries, as also the slowdown in Europe, makes India the perfect choice, the traders said.

"We have observed that we get better trading opportunities in India. Events like this trade fair have, in fact, given small traders one of the best opportunities," Ernest Moagi, director (Export Marketing) at South Africa's Trade and Investment Department, told reporters .

"This is important since it goes a long way in lifting the economic condition of our people. They are otherwise seeing low response in countries like China, Singapore, Tanzania and even the US," Moagi added.

Moagi specifically said small women traders of South Africa benefited a lot from India.

"They otherwise have to struggle hard to endorse their products back home or in other countries. Either the price is too high, or there are quality issues. This creates barriers to trade," he noted.

Emphasising that even items like ceramics and jewelry which are well-known around the world do not fetch good orders in other parts of South Asia and even Europe, Moagi said the situation was different in India.

"A couple of years back, the situation in India was not very different. However, with the progress India has made, this has changed. Our small traders do not face any kind of losses and this is very uplifting for them," Moagi said, adding that the better trading opportunities in India are helping to provide jobs to South Africa's young population, in a country where the unemployment rate is over 30 percent.

Traders participating in the IITF are happy.

"It is saddening for a trader like me when we are not able to do good business abroad despite investing a huge amount of capital. Countries like Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Chad and many others do not give us the kind of business we want. They even try to bargain with the base price we set for our products during trade fairs. But in India, it is completely different," Vasco Mudzanani, a young trader in native jewelry, who is participating in the IITF for the second time, told media.

Mudzanani is among the several other traders who earlier ignored the IITF but started participating after looking at the profits earned by other traders at the fair. Mudzanani is among the 34 traders who have been assisted by the South African government to promote their business in India.

According to the Trade and Investment Department, South Africa has budgeted USD 426,000 for the IITF, where it is the partner country this year. Overall, USD 160 million has been budgeted for the department this year, which is expected to rise to USD 185 million in 2015-16.

"The actual benefit we get from India is when we start getting bulk orders for our products once the trade fair is over. This make us come again and again to India. Then, South Africa shares a special
relation with India for the past couple of decades," Mudzanani said.

Leandri, a trader dealing in ceramics, told IANS: "I get real value for my products in India. The situation worsens in other South Asian nations."