South African businesspeople, who showcased their products at the Sial Paris Food Products Exhibition, are confident that the leads that they generated during the exhibition will soon develop into concrete deals.

Through the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic), South African businesses have been showcasing their products at the exhibition.

Local companies were amongst the more than 7 000 exhibitors from all over the world who pulled out all the stops to attract the attention of buyers, distributors, agents and exporters, who descended on the Paris show in search of mouth-watering and distinct products.

On Thursday, the businesspeople headed home with leads they generated during the five-day show. The arduous task of separating the wheat from the chaff will begin in earnest as soon as they are back in their offices.

“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 consist of wholegrain mustard, chutney and chilli sauce.

Meanwhile, the Managing Director of House of Natural Butter, Debbie Ncube, was overwhelmed at the amount of attention that her peanut butter products attracted from international distributors and buyers.

“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.

For another first time international exhibitor, Roshni Morar, who is the co-founder of Roska Artisan Ice Cream, a Johannesburg-based company, the exposure that her company received by participating in Sial Paris, went beyond her imagination.

“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 reckoned it was beneficial for his company to participate in Sial Paris as he managed to hold meetings with existing clients, as well as a number of potential clients.

“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.

Source: South African Government News Agency