Volatile currency adds extra dimension in difficult times

As exporters around the world faced difficult times, having to deal with the economic crisis in the past year, South African exporters had to deal with the added difficulty of their fluctuating currency, said Advocate Mark Nowitz, chairman of the Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI). Speaking at the annual JCCI/ Nedbank 2009 Gauteng Exporter of the Year awards recently, Nowitz said not only did this cut into exporters’ profit margins, but also attacked them from a competitive point of view. Gauteng exporters, like their counterparts in the rest of the world, faced difficult challenges as trade networks globally declined, said Nowitz, but as the judges found when looking at the entries there was also hope as those who entered had shown remarkable resilience to the markets, and had managed to find innovative ways of coping with the volatility and fluctuating currency. In some cases there were even exporters who had managed to expand and grow their product range despite the tough economic times. Corne du Plessis of the Department of Trade and Industry, one of the sponsors of the competition, said while South Africa continued to be vulnerable as the country imported more than it exported, it also offered much opportunity to exporters. “It is important that we address this trade deficit and continue to explore new exporting capabilities and penetrate new markets.” Du Plessis said that the trade deficit should not be seen as a negative, but rather a positive as it posed great opportunity for exporters, and with Gauteng being the fourth largest economy in Africa, more so in the province than anywhere else in the country.