Events

Date to be confirmed

Over the past 20 years, an increasing trend towards the concentration and globalisation of the food retail sector has become apparent. The occurrence of several highly publicised food scares and the requirement that producers take responsibility for the safety of their products have created an incentive for the development of private standards, resulting in an increase in the number and type of these standards. The result is that all exporters to these markets are currently required to comply with a plethora of official import requirements as well as private standards.

After a number of years of strong economic growth and relative macroeconomic stability, the South African economy now seems to be facing an especially uncertain outlook. The catalyst for the uncertain outlook may have been international developments, but domestic policy failures appear to have played no small part in guiding the South African economy to the brink of a substantial slowdown, with a significant risk of stagflation in the future. Forum registration is now open: http://www.tips.org.za/tipsdpruforum/2008/registration

Date to be Confirmed

The Apparel Lesotho Alliance to Fight Aids (ALAFA) was researched and implemented by ComMark with seed funding from DFID. Within two years of implementation, the programme covers 75% of the 46,000 textile and apparel workforce in Lesotho with its education and prevention programme and 50% of workers currently have access to medical monitoring and treatment with ARVs.

The Forum brings together the US and African public and private sectors to become more knowledgeable about the African agribusiness marketplace. Highlights of the Forum will include industry-specific sessions and panels to address cross-cutting issues, such as finance product innovation, pharmaceutical and biofuel industry growth, carbon trading, production technology and certification. Industry experts will share best practices and the latest trends in the field.

Africa is a major production area of organic ingredients for apparel, food, home and beauty products as well as the location of many high quality manufacturers of textile, apparel, home, food, and beauty products. Brands and retailers including Aveda, Coop Switzerland, Marks & Spencer, Nordstrom and Woolworth's South Africa are offering their customers a growing variety of certified organic and fair trade products from Africa.

The African Continent is on the way to become the bright light in emerging market investing. Economic growth in Africa has averaged 5% over the last 7 years, with agriculture and agro-industry being the key sectors for the continent's development in terms of GDP, employment, food security and trade. The AgriBusiness Forum 2008 takes advantage of the favourable business environment to check how to turn it into growth and wealth.

The Eastern Cape Red Meat Project’s Custom Feeding Programme was officially launched on 11 June 2008. It served as a training seminar for local farmers, giving them clear practical examples and advice about how to produce a marketable animal. The launch was very well attended, with representatives from national, provincial and local departments of agriculture, the Agricultural Research Councl (ARC) and the National Agricultural Marketing Council (NAMC). In addition, farmer delegations from the Northern Cape, Alfred Nzo District and OR Tambo district attended.