Piloting Resilience in Trade Promotion

The document analyzes the impact of Covid-19 on green SMME exporters in the Western Cape and evaluates how Wesgro adapted its trade promotion services. Key findings highlight that while travel restrictions severely hindered traditional matchmaking, the shift to virtual training, hybrid trade missions, and digital marketing increased accessibility for smaller firms. The report argues that these digital tools can reduce the environmental impact of business travel and help exporters adapt to emerging green economy demands and climate-related trade barriers, particularly in the EU market.

• The Covid-19 pandemic caused significant disruptions to Western Cape exports, particularly through the grounding of passenger flights which reduced air cargo capacity since "almost all air cargo is belly cargo" in Cape Town.
• Despite the pandemic, Western Cape exports grew by 7.4 percent in 2020 to R136.8bn, with Europe (including the UK) becoming the largest export region for the first time in ten years, totaling R47.1bn.
• A survey of green SMME exporters revealed that 86% identified the inability to participate in international events or trade missions as their greatest challenge.
• Green SMMEs found digital interventions most effective; 57% cited digital marketing and communication channels as the most useful response, followed by educational webinars at 41%.
• Trade barriers to the EU vary by sector: 100% of agriculture, food production, and forestry respondents cited "target market access and costs of public sector administrative documentation and certification" as the greatest barrier.
• Wesgro increased the reach of its exporter training by shifting from a one-week in-person program to virtual courses, training 148 companies across 7 online courses between April 2020 and March 2021.
• To maintain business matchmaking during lockdowns, Wesgro piloted virtual and hybrid missions, including a virtual wine mission to South Korea and the first virtual mission in Africa to Botswana in May 2020.
• Wesgro is developing a 'Cape Trade Portal' to serve as a permanent online matchmaking platform and resource center, reducing the need for costly and environmentally damaging travel for SMMEs.
• The Atlantis Greentech Special Economic Zone (SEZ) is the only one of its kind in Africa and is projected to attract US$3.7 billion in investments over the next 20 years.
• Wesgro intends to launch a "Buy Western Cape" campaign to promote the region as a quality origin for products and services, incorporating stories of biodiversity conservation and sustainable agriculture.

APA

Bosman, K. (2021). Piloting Resilience in Trade Promotion. GreenCape. https://greencape.co.za/assets/Piloting-Resilience-in-Trade-Promotion.pdf

Chicago

Bosman, Karen. Piloting Resilience in Trade Promotion. GreenCape, 2021. https://greencape.co.za/assets/Piloting-Resilience-in-Trade-Promotion.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Bosman |first1=Karen |title=Piloting Resilience in Trade Promotion |publisher=GreenCape |date=October 2021 |url=https://greencape.co.za/assets/Piloting-Resilience-in-Trade-Promotion.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{bosman2021piloting, author = {Bosman, Karen}, title = {{Piloting Resilience in Trade Promotion}}, institution = {GreenCape}, year = {2021}, month = oct, url = {https://greencape.co.za/assets/Piloting-Resilience-in-Trade-Promotion.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }