Award for export
2007-10-25
THE film industry proved to be the star at the recent ABSA/Cape Regional Chamber Exporter of the Year awards dinner when the big prize went to Moonlighting Filmmakers.
Moonlighting is the leading company in an industry that brought about R1 billion into the Western Cape economy last year. The money represents a share of the budgets for major feature films and commercials whose producers chose the Cape with its wide range of service providers and scenery as a location for filming.
Moonlighting is the first company in the industry to enter the competition and was responsible for bringing major films like Blood Diamonds and stars like Leonardo Di Caprio and Meg Ryan to Cape Town.
Oscar Grobler, head of ABSA’s corporate and business bank, paid tribute to the exporters and said that ultimately they would have to provide the solution to South Africa’s trade deficit which amounted to seven percent of GDP at present.
He said the country had been able to sustain the trade deficit only because of the massive inflow of foreign capital, mostly in the form of short term investments.
The Transnet National Ports Authority trophy for the non-manufacturing exporter went to Ceres Fruit Juices which exports more than 22 percent of the product of its Ceres factory to 80 countries under the Ceres, Liqui-Fruit and Fruitree labels.
The Credit Guarantee Trophy for the smaller exporter went to another first-time entrant, NoMU. The driving force of this gourmet food and spice company is a woman, Tracy Foulkes, and, together with her husband, Paul Raphaely, has built a business which exports products to 30 countries.
The Transnet Terminals Trophy for the engineering/manufacturing trophy went to Petrel Engineering. The company makes cranes and winches for fishing vessels, but has now moved into the off-shore oil industry and nearly half of its output is designed for exploration vessels and floating rigs.
Other finalists were Technical Systems which makes feeding equipment for intensive pig and poultry farms and Tradewinds which manufactures large canvas parasols.
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