The Eastern Cape Development Corporation (ECDC), in partnership with the Swiss Import Promotion Programme (SIPPO), has launched a strategy to boost the province’s natural ingredient exports by 25%, from R4.2m to R5.3m, over the next three years.
The Eastern Cape Natural Ingredients Export Promotion Strategy aims to help the province’s producers gain entry into at least five new international markets.
These include North America — particularly the US and Canada — as well as the UK, Europe and Switzerland, where demand for organic and sustainable products continues to grow.
Asia has also been identified as a major growth opportunity, where increasing consumer focus on health and wellness is driving demand in countries such as Japan, China, South Korea and India.
ECDC trade promotion specialist Linda Lubengu said the strategy was designed to boost the export of natural ingredients by identifying international opportunities and helping them overcome market access barriers.
The Eastern Cape’s natural ingredients include aloe ferox, honeybush, rosemary, hemp, rose geranium, artemisia afra, African sage and honey, among other things.
“Despite the province’s abundance of natural ingredients, the sector has not been sufficiently developed for export,” she said.
“We recognised the gap and partnered with SIPPO — which promotes natural ingredient and processed food imports from SA to Switzerland and the European Union — to formulate a comprehensive export strategy.
“The first step was to map the existing landscape: which products are available, who is exporting, what markets they’re targeting, and what challenges they face.”
The strategy was launched last week.
The development process involved consultations with a range of stakeholders, including the department of trade, industry and competition, South African export councils, the Eastern Cape department of economic development, environmental affairs and tourism, and the Eastern Cape department of agriculture.
It aims to secure a minimum of 15 new product certifications, engage and train more than 100 micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) across the export value chain.
For the 2025/2026 financial year, Lubengu said, the focus would be on a province-wide mapping exercise to better understand the needs of producers, provide market intelligence and prepare them for export readiness.
Once this groundwork was completed, producers would be supported in promoting their products in the selected markets.
“The Eastern Cape is home to a wealth of botanical resources with innovative applications across industries such as cosmetics, skincare, pharmaceuticals, food and beverage, and traditional medicine.
“Many of these plants are sustainably harvested from the wild and have transitioned into the formal economy, proving their value and quality on larger platforms,” she said.
The Herald
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