A KwaZulu-Natal food manufacturing company is on the verge of striking a lucrative multi-million rand deal with a United Arab Emirates (UAE) global food distribution company. Durban-based Mpilende Foods is one of the 33 South African companies participating in the 30th International Fair of Luanda Trade Exhibition (FILDA) which started in the Angolan capital of Luanda on Tuesday and ends today. The companies were led by the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry Ms Elizabeth Thabethe.
One of the visitors to the South African Pavilion at the exhibition was a representative of a company from Dubai which has a presence in Angola and trades in food commodities. The keen interest on the Mpilende products and the amount of time she spent at the stand discussing with the Chief Executive Officer of Mpilende Foods Mr Fundo Thango indicated that she had found what she was looking for.
“The company has committed to procure fifty containers of white and yellow maize mealie meal each from us every month for distribution throughout Africa. This is an equivalent of 80 000 25kg bags of mealie meal every month. This is a really good deal particularly as the transaction will be in the US dollars, and we could not have asked for more from our participation in FILDA. It was really worth it,” said Thango.
He added that his company would be awaiting a response from the UAE company on the samples of his products that they took to Dubai for testing.
“We have confidence in the quality of our products and we have no doubt that the company will be impressed about what they will find in our samples. They will happily return with a positive answer and we are planning to travel to Dubai to seal the deal soon. The company representative also took samples of our maize-based instant cereal to try and establish if it could be good for their market before placing an order,” said Thango.
He also said the positive impact that the deal with the UAE company would have would be phenomenal. His company’s capacity will have to be increased significantly. This will happen through sourcing more raw material from farmers, establishing partnerships with farming organisations, and assisting in turning small emerging farmers into commercial farmers through long term contracts, thereby contributing in creating employment in the agricultural and agro-processing sectors.
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