ProFound conducted a series of regional conferences for CBI’s natural ingredients project to follow-up on earlier strategic conferences held in December 2014. The first conferences focused on export development; the second series of conferences took one step further by looking at export promotion, e.g. developing the right product for the right market, supported by the right promotion and marketing mix. Of course, research is vital to such efforts. As such, the conferences not only brought together companies and public sector officials from key departments at local and national level, but also brought in researchers from universities and research institutes with research programmes [Read more]

While South African natural ingredient producers can boast strong unique selling points, such as an incredible biodiversity, a strong entrepreneurial spirit and access to technical skills, South Africa plays a relatively modest role on the international market for ingredients. Robbie Hogervorst supports CBI with a programme of strategic conferences in 2014 and 2015 to counter some of the root causes: cooperation and association at all levels of the value chain. First in this series, a conference on export development needs was held in Pretoria, Durban and Cape Town, bringing stakeholders together at a regional level. During this conference, critical bottlenecks [Read more]