Johannesburg - The country’s crippling drought situation is set to top the agenda today as top Italian political, business and industrial leaders meet with their local counterparts in Cape Town today.
The two-day meeting will discuss ways in which Italy’s agro-processing industry can help in dealing with South Africa’s most severe drought in more than 20 years.
Italian entrepreneur Paolo Borzatta yesterday told Business Report that the focus of the summit would be to find solutions to the drought and to improve the general trade ties between the two countries.
Borzatta said Italy would bring experts in food security, agro-processing, seed and fertilisers, water management and irrigation as South Africa battled with the worst drought in 23 years.
“Our focus would be on small and medium enterprises with specific value chains to the agricultural industry which is key to food security in any country,” Borzatta said.
“These big plans they need to have many companies specialising in components and quality control. We will discuss agro-industry, which we believe has opportunities and to bring all the experiences of putting together to facilitate co-operation among small farms and more successful big farms.”
The drought in South Africa has forced farmers to scale back on production and pushed most productive farms in Mpumalanga, Free State and North West into despair.
It has also seen South Africa importing staple foods such as meat, maize, bread and cereal, raising fears that food prices will climb to record highs in the months to come and jobs will be lost. However, beyond the agricultural sector, the meeting would also discuss investment opportunities in the technology, automotive, infrastructure and energy sector.
At the moment, bilateral trade relations between South Africa and Italy are worth about R54.3 billion while investment flows amount to R875 million, mostly skewed in the Europeans’ favour.
Organisers of the meeting said Italy had identified South Africa as key to tapping the Sub-Saharan Africa region, which experienced gross domestic product growth of more than 6 percent on average over the past decade, with household final consumption expected to increase fourfold from 2000 by 2020.
South Africa’s ambassador to Italy, Nomatemba Tambo, said there were huge investment opportunities for Italy in the country. “If you look at sub-Saharan Africa, it is booming and is rapidly expanding its consumer markets.”
Tambo added: “There are huge investment opportunities for collaboration between Italian and South African companies in the fields of manufacturing, energy, infrastructure, telecoms, agribusiness and transport.”
The meeting would focus on how the two countries could bring mutual benefits to their respective economies and provide a platform for companies entering and expanding both into Africa and Europe.
Valerio De Molli, a managing partner at The European House Ambrosetti, said South Africa and the sub-Saharan region remained high on Italy’s investment agenda.
“This high-level summit for leading business and political figures from Africa and Italy aims to provide South African and Italian leaders with innovative ideas to shape their business and development strategies,” De Mollio said. “In fact, a large emphasis is on promoting small and medium enterprises through matching competencies and technologies between the two countries.”
BUSINESS REPORT