‘Expect a shift to green packaging’

South Africa is a relatively novice exporter nation. “South Africans are an entrepreneurial race by nature,” says Owen Bottomley of packaging specialist Cape Crating, “and exploring beyond the Limpopo, given our political history, has just begun.” At present, South Africa’s main dry cargo exports into Africa are mining equipment, building and civils equipment, and it is expected that these will continue to grow as its neighbours – Angola, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique – enter a period of greater stability and growth. “We will expand into the countries beyond them as companies seek growth prospects. “Retailers will set up outlets all over Africa, following in the footsteps of the likes of Shoprite and Standard Bank, with their products coming from SA. We will become wise to the world markets and the scale of these, and more and more companies will be targeting international markets for their products, from furniture manufacturers and medical products to design work in all spheres, with some material content in the designs coming from SA. Our manufacturing entities will expand and the need for quality packaging solutions will grow,” he said. Bottomley expects that IT companies will start doing back-ups and associated services first for their SA customers operating in Africa and, from this, new clients will develop in the host countries such as Nigeria. The need will then arise to move expensive hi-tech servers into a variety of locations in secure packaging. Another change, he said, will be the shift to green packaging, which is already under way in Europe and USA where companies are financially responsible for disposing of their packing material. “South Africa has launched a cardboard crate that is waterproof and fire-resistant. Our 1000 x 800 pallet, a combination of wood and cardboard, has a solid deck, comes in at 9.5kgs, and can take 1 ton of cartons. The top can be sold as scrap paper,” he said. Cape Crating has a plan to expand to ten branches in the next ten years to tap into this growth and fulfil its vision of being leaders in packing and securing cargo worldwide.