CAPE TOWN- The department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, in partnership with Total South Africa, will again host the annual female entrepreneur awards (DAFF FEA) to honour women entrepreneurs in the sector.
The 20th event will take place at the Grand West Casino in Cape Town on August 29, under the theme “Celebrating two decades of women’s victory in agriculture, forestry and fisheries”.
The awards ceremony is a programme which recognises the efforts of women, young females, and women living with disabilities for their contribution towards food security, poverty alleviation, job creation and economic growth in the sector.
In a statement, the department said that this year’s awards ceremony will reflect on the 20-year journey of the programme, highlighting its success, impact, and challenges.
“In the 20 years since the inception of the programme, most of the women have shown improvement in accessing markets as they expand contracts with retailers such as Pick ‘n Pay, Woolworths, Shoprite, pharmacies, with others exporting their products to improve their turnover and create employment,” the statement said.
These exports include Moringa to Swaziland, Botswana, Mozambique, and Argentina, bananas and snakes to China, and citrus to the Middle East, Europe, and the United Kingdom. Others send their produce to many other international markets such as the United States and the Far East.
Through the programme, there has been a visible increase in employment creation of both seasonal and permanent workers on the entrepreneurs' farms. Their enterprises are prime examples of the strength of mentoring workers by exposing them to training, which helps them to venture into their own businesses, the department said.
The winners will be announced at a gala dinner in the following categories: Best female worker, best subsistence producer, top entrepreneur: smallholder, top entrepreneur: processing, among others.