AGOA Exporters of the Year Awards

SAFELC member, One of Each, has taken the South African AGOA Exporter of The Year award again this year but in different categories. Top Black Owned Enterprise Exporter to the US under AGOA and Women Owned Business Exporter under AGOA.
The awards are to recognize and reward outstanding performance and noteworthy efforts of exporters in overcoming market entry hurdles and achieving successful trade to the U.S under AGOA.

Filda Exhibition

FILDA – Luanda International Fair is a multi-sectoral exhibition and business event.  Since 1983 the event annually brings together international entrepreneurs and countries of Africa, America, Europe, and Asia to exhibit products and services, as well as establish contacts for partners, generating visible trade impact across the region. SAFLEC member, Neptun Boot, supported through SAFLEC attended the show along with Protea Leathers (NASFAS laptop Bag awardee) via dtic National Pavilion.
Our members had the honour to meet with the Angolan Minister of Trade and the SA Political Councillor, all on national TV. We thank our members for promoting SAFLEC several times on national TV in Angola which followed on with a separate session with the Ambassador and his team who showed great interest in the range of safety footwear manufactured by Neptun Boot in Pinetown and the SAFLEC organization.   It has been a slow start to Physical exhibitions with an eventful  bump and turn here and there but we remain motivated irrespective of the hurdles to explore events through limited exposure.

TFG interest in localizing leather goods and procuring for Australia stores

TFG has shown interest in localizing handbag and leather goods into their local stores and of much interest to SAFLEC is the intent for export into the Australia stores.  The General Goods, and Handbag Association, along with dtic Dr Jaywant Irkhede and SAFLEC are currently working on a pilot project to get this off the ground with TFG. Hannelie Strauss Chairperson of the Association is working closely with TFG on the localization side and SAFLEC on the export side.   The Australian side of things will focus on mainly leather handbags, smalls, and luggage.  Compliance is extremely important, and we encourage members to ensure bargaining council compliance as well as membership with General Goods Association and SAFLEC. You can find contact details for the General Goods and Handbag Association and SAFLEC below for membership application and guidance from General Goods Association on compliances.

SAFLEC:
E: info2@saflec.co.za
T: 031 266 1472/3
 
General Goods Association:
E:generalgoodsassociation@gmail.com
T: 079 848 3433
 

WORLD NEWS (AS PER WORLD FOOTWEAR NEWS) 

During the meeting of the Italian Manufacturers' Association (Assocalzaturifici), the Chair Siro Badon stated that "without digital skills and an approach to new sustainable production standards, not only does internationalization become tough, but in the medium term, so does survive global competition", and recalled the launch of a few projects during the pandemic to better assist companies in this transition.
 
On one hand, Siro Badon spoke, for example, of the MICAM Milano digital, which is intended for accompanying companies on new B2B platforms.
 

On the other hand, as sustainability "is increasingly the starting point for footwear industries investing in research to guarantee high standards of eco-compatibility for their production processes", he highlighted the contributions of the Verified and Certified Steps (VCS) project for sustainability certification. VCS is a registered trademark awarded to companies that complete an assessment, measurement and above all, an improvement pathway focused on performance in all major aspects of business sustainability, in accordance with internationally recognized standards.

War
At the meeting, the Chair of Assocalzaturifici also explained how the war between Russia and Ukraine become a central issue for the progressive recovery of the sector, which experienced an improvement in terms of productions levels last year but looks now to the second half of 2022 with greater caution.
 
"Recovery must also mean coming to terms with serious uncertainty and a looming recession caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which is exacerbating certain phenomena, like the spiralling costs of raw materials, energy and rampant inflation", commented Siro Badon, speaking of reasons of strategic and political nature to analyse the consequences of the war. Footwear companies (especially in Marche and Emilia Romagna) are being required to quickly embrace diversification to lessen the reliance on the Russian and Ukrainian markets at the same time the government has limited room for manoeuvre, as most resources are being used to limit the consequences of energy price hikes for income support.
 
Comment on article
The above being experienced by Italy is a clear global problem. SAFLEC has also found that logistic challenges, the cost there of, availability of containers, port infrastructure cancelled sailings, re-routed cargo, movement of some shipping lines from direct to trans-shipped cargo along with escalating dollar rate is making trade challenging. Let us not forget about friendly Eskom, and the many breaks he affords you in-between what should be production time. We look to Africa with the Africa Free Trade Agreement in place as a focus yet we see countries like DRC imposing legislation that are calling for over 50% -60 % procurement for mining industry from locally owned businesses to protect their markets and we begin to wonder is this trend going to move across Africa. The recent change in buying behaviour globally also plays a role. But all said, this also provides opportunities for us in South Africa to move into new markets while the costs of working with China keep going up.

SPECIAL NOTICE FDRA (Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America) 

BE AWARE — Next year France will start to require brands/retailers to place climate impact information on clothing labels. A French agency is working to figure out what data is needed and how the label would look.
https://www.wionews.com/world/france-to-require-climate-impact-info-on-clothes-499574  *This is the start of what will spread across Europe - digital labels to requirements on circular products - and eventually impact footwear as well. “Be aware –I’ve been tracking and working with European footwear groups on these issues. We will issue specific briefs on these such items to FDRA members in the next few weeks to help companies understand and prepare.” - Andy Polk

SOCIAL MEDIA 

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