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Networking event brings industry players together

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By Benjamin Brits

For the first time, stakeholders to the supply chain participated in a face-to-face engagement organised by AMIE, GCCA-SA and the US-MEF that was held at the Indaba Hotel and Conference venue in Fourways, Gauteng.

Guests welcomed to the networking event. Image credit: © Cold Link Africa | Benjamin Brits
Guests welcomed to the networking event. Image credit: © Cold Link Africa | Benjamin Brits

With around 40 attendees, Association of Meat Importers and Exporters (AMIE) chief executive officer Paul Matthew, welcomed guests and celebrated the inaugural networking evening that had interest from several major players within logistics, importer/exporter, refrigerated transport and cold storage providers.

GG Alcock – guest speaker at the event gave an excellent and informative presentation in KasiNomics for the Afropolitan generation. Image credit: © Cold Link Africa | Benjamin Brits
GG Alcock – guest speaker at the event gave an excellent and informative presentation in KasiNomics for the Afropolitan generation. Image credit: © Cold Link Africa | Benjamin Brits

“This event is something we are trying for the first time and I’m very excited to see this platform grow, and hopefully see similar networking in other regions follow in time. We are pleased to host some of the industry leaders here in fact,” Matthew commented. He offered special thanks to the US Meat Export Federation (US-MEF) who made the event possible as well the Global Cold Chain Alliance-SA (GCCA-SA) for their ongoing support since the start of their relationship.

AMIE chairman, Seymour Talpert, also took the opportunity to welcome guests and thanked all for attending, being fully aware of the stress businesses have been under since the onset of the pandemic and lockdowns.

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He said, “It’s important to mention in today’s times the value of cooperation in the logistics chain. As we experienced through the unrest of 2021, when everyone was under incredible pressure, as well as earlier this year with the floods – working together became critical. Everyone has their own agenda of course, and everyone needs to make money driving their own boat, rightly so. Cooperation doesn’t mean sharing business secrets with competitors but rather support in these times as we saw last year by managing to liaise with government and arranging security with defence force presence, and so on. Part of AMIE’s strategy going forward is to do more of this – and hence work for the good of the industry and the good of the country within meat imports and exports. It’s great to see everyone who has come through to participate in this networking – even with possible competitors, because there is common interest in collaborations.”

Adding to the comments of the AMIE executives, co-host and director of GCCA South Africa – Lizelle van der Berg was invited to say a few words. Jokingly opening that she would surely love to see more females being a part of such events but echoed the sentiments of AMIE. “With Covid, the riots, the floods – we all realise that working together means as an industry we become much stronger than everyone working individually trying to navigate difficult circumstances themselves. And we do need to work together. I’m so happy that we have participated in initiating this event, and I too thank those involved in making it possible. I really look forward to working together in future to have more of these sessions for members and stakeholders.”

As the sponsor of this event, Matt Copeland – Africa lead for the US-MEF, was given the floor and said, “Thank you to all of the members of the various associations, you make a huge difference to our world and we support you 100% as well as all of your inputs in whatever we can do to try and facilitate trade. We believe in networking, we believe in people, and we believe in bridging any gaps that exist – and with that at this session hopefully we will help some role players get across the line in terms of understanding some of the different economic sectors to what most of us are exposed to on a daily basis.” Copeland went on to introduce the guest speaker – GG Alcock with a brief background and what he found of interest with the various media and books linked to the incredible and completely different view on parts of the South African economy that Alcock has authored.

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As an individual that grew up in a mud-hut in Kwa-Zulu Natal with no electricity or running water, speaks fluent Zulu, has a background as a political activist and now leads an agency focused on launching products into what most South African’s understand to be the “informal economy” – through his more than 20 year on-the-ground research Alcock offered guests an absolutely intriguing presentation on highlights of one of his published works called KasiNomics.

Role players from various sectors of the logistics and supply chain were in attendance. Image credit: © Cold Link Africa | Benjamin Brits
Role players from various sectors of the logistics and supply chain were in attendance. Image credit: © Cold Link Africa | Benjamin Brits

Taking his entranced audience through some of the real-life examples of his research – he demonstrated the total misconceptions that exist around this well-established and fast-growing economic division of the country that most companies, until now, have flat ignored. Through several scenarios, case studies, and statistics it was revealed of the massive potential and value running into the hundreds-of-billions of rands for the food sectors in these areas alone that include retail, prep and sell, and even the use of social media platforms for ordering and delivery.

Part of his presentation also included the vast changes in buying styles, household dynamics, the insistence of quality, behaviours of the communities that are served by the informal markets, and links to traditions – irrespective of pricing on certain foods. Throughout the talk with Zulu translations and stories of his experiences, Alcock kept his audience engaged. As he wrapped up, he also suggested some predictions about how significant changes would overtake the traditional methods associated to food, and general item purchasing in the near future, and what role players, including large businesses, logistics, storage and even financiers should be considering.

Alcock concluded his talk by saying, “I believe a real opportunity is taking part in this KasiNomic revolution in what I call the Afropolitan generation. This is the future. If you’re not there, you’re going to be left behind. There’s a saying I like to reference – if the pace of change outside your business is faster than the pace of change inside your business, your business will die.”

From left: Matt Copeland (Africa Lead US-MEF), Seymour Talpert (AMIE chairman), Paul Matthew (AMIE CEO), Lizelle van den Berg (GCCA-SA director) and guest speaker GG Alcock.
From left: Matt Copeland (Africa Lead US-MEF), Seymour Talpert (AMIE chairman), Paul Matthew (AMIE CEO), Lizelle van den Berg (GCCA-SA director) and guest speaker GG Alcock. Image credit: © Cold Link Africa | Benjamin Brits

Guests then enjoyed the opportunity to network over dinner and refreshments where many different discussions took place from overall industry trends to partaking in innovative solutions and product developments, to concerns and mitigation of risks.

Look out for future networking events by connecting with these bodies.

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