MATEP to sponsor Zambian companies

MATEP to sponsor Zambian companies
By Fridah Zinyama
Wednesday June 25, 2008 [04:00]

USAID-MATEP chief of party Scott Simons has said the project will be sponsoring some Zambian companies to an international trade fair for the continent in South Africa.
In an interview, Simons said the International Trade Fair dubbed ‘Africa’s Big Seven’ will be held in Johannesburg, from 20-22th July, 2008.

Market Access, Trade and Enabling Policies (MATEP) project focuses on increasing the level of Zambian agriculture and natural resources exports into regional and international markets through overcoming policy, tariff, non-tariff barriers to trade and forging linkages.

Simons said Africa’s Big Seven (AB7) was the largest trade show in the region.
It brings together seven individual agribusiness shows into one enormous exhibition which last year attracted 6731 qualified buyers from 40 countries.

Simons said MATEP would again organise a Zambia stand at AB7 in which a limited number of Zambian companies would be selected to exhibit.

“So far, we have received confirmation from Freshpikt, Ubuchi, Choice Nuts, National Honey Council and the Zambia Development Agency (ZDA),” he said. “Other companies are yet to confirm their participation.”

Simons said MATEP would ensure that the Zambian companies that participated were given an opportunity to have business-to-business meetings depending on the different sectors that the companies belonged to.

“I’m confident that this trade fair would provide an opportunity for the Zambian companies to make contacts that were going to help them in conducting further business deals,” he said.

Simons said the trade show would attract a lot of companies from the region who would be exhibiting at the event and it will definitely give the Zambian companies more opportunities to export to other markets.

And Simons added that MATEP would undertake more tradeshows in order to accord more Zambian companies with opportunities to export their products to new markets.
He said other markets, like Democratic Republic of Congo, would present more opportunities for the Zambian companies but that it was costly to export to that market due to the long-clearing processes.