Namibia Plastics Packaging wins regional exporter of the year award
Namibia Plastic Packaging was crowned Regional Exporter of the Year at the Southern Africa Regional Exporters Awards 2021 held on 8 December in East London, South Africa.
The hybrid virtual and physical event, which was under the theme, ‘Celebrating the export excellence of Southern African brands’, presented awards in four categories.
Plastic Packaging is a fully Namibian owned company that has been operating for 38 years and specialises in the extruding, printing & converting of HDPE (High-Density Polyethylene) and LDPE (Low-Density Polyethylene) as well as a mixture of the above-mentioned materials.
The second and third runner-ups in the category were Technical Systems from South Africa and Far East Textiles from Eswatini, respectively. These three firms were among eight national finalists who beat other worthy contenders to emerge as the Exporter of the Year in their respective countries.
In the category of Trade Promotion Service Provider of the Year, South Africa’s Wesgro emerged as the winner, with the South African Footwear and Leather Export Council, and Lesotho National Development Corporation, in second and third place respectively. Absa Bank, South Africa, won the Capital Provider of the Year award, with the African Trade Platform, also from South Africa in second place, and Post Bank, Lesotho, in third place.
In the final category of Buyer of the Year, African Dream Foods, from the United States, was the overall winner, with Crouching Tiger Ventures (United States) and Moringa Initiative Limited (South Africa), placing second and third respectively.
The awards are part of a collaboration between the U.S. Government through the United States Agency for International Development and the Eastern Cape Development Corporation.
“This partnership with the U.S. Government, has over the past three years, assisted the Eastern Cape companies to utilize the opportunities that are presented by the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). This includes providing firms with information on the requirements of trading with the United States,” said the Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane, speaking at the awards ceremony.
The event seeks to incentivize and encourage export firms from the eight participating countries of Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zambia, to explore innovative ways of improving their regional and global competitiveness.
The awards, which focused on exports to the United States and South African markets, also awarded three supplementary business categories that offer vital support to these firms to achieve export excellence, despite market access challenges, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Acting Consul General, U.S. Consulate General Cape Town, Will Stevens highlighted the U.S. government’s continuing commitment to supporting the growth of the private sector across the region.
Nico du Plessis, Managing Director of Namibia Plastic Packaging (right), with Trade and Industrialisation Minister, Lucia Iipumbu(middle) during a visit to the Namibia Plastics Packaging factory earlier this year.
