Brics brings growth and diversification opportunities

While textile exports remain a core business focus, EFL (Expolanka Freight Limited) – which celebrates its 10th year of operation in South Africa this year – has diversified its export and import service to include pharmaceuticals, automotive, chemical and agricultural products. “There have been several new trade agreements to come out of the fifth Brics Summit held in Durban in April, with us doing a lot of business with companies in Brazil in particular,” said Dil Gunaratne, director at EFL South Africa. He told FTW that EFL was currently the second largest textile exports forwarder from South Africa to the USA and Canada. “Our objective is to become one of the top five fashion forwarders in the world within three years, based on the opportunities for development we’ve seen in the market,” said Gunaratne. The southern African region’s labour costs are inexpensive and Gunaratne said there were a myriad Chinese-owned textile factories operating in Lesotho, Botswana and Swaziland to meet the increased demand in textiles from the North American market. “We have a great sales team in place in the USA and we are confident we’ll reach our goal, with their help,” he said.