Piloting Resilience in Trade Promotion

This case study by GreenCape examines how Wesgro, a trade promotion agency in South Africa's Western Cape, adapted its services during the Covid-19 pandemic to support SMMEs and how these lessons can be applied to enhance green trade competitiveness and resilience.

• The Covid-19 pandemic caused significant disruptions to trade and travel for South African exporters, with the discovery of a new SARS-Cov-2 variant in December 2020 leading to South Africa becoming the "most restricted country in the world from which to travel".
• Western Cape exports showed resilience in 2020 with a 7.4 percent increase, totaling R136.8bn. Europe (including the UK) became the largest export region for the first time in ten years, reaching R47.1bn, a 28.9 percent increase.
• A survey of 52 green SMME exporters revealed that 86% of all participants identified the inability to participate in international events or trade missions as their greatest challenge. Additionally, 71.43% of all surveyed businesses experienced a decrease in revenue.
• Green SMMEs found digital interventions most effective during the pandemic; 57% identified digital marketing and communication channels as the most useful response, followed by educational webinars at 41%.
• Export barriers to the EU vary by sector: 100% of respondents in the agriculture, food production, and forestry sector cited "target market access and costs of public sector administrative documentation and certification" as the greatest barrier.
• Wesgro transitioned its exporter training to a virtual format during the pandemic, which increased reach and accessibility. Between April 2020 and March 2021, Wesgro trained 148 companies through 7 online courses and provided one-on-one mentoring to 56 SMMEs.
• To maintain business matchmaking during lockdowns, Wesgro piloted virtual and hybrid missions, including the first virtual mission in Africa to Botswana in May 2020 and a virtual wine mission to South Korea.
• Wesgro is developing the Cape Trade Portal as a permanent online matchmaking platform and resource center to reduce reliance on costly and environmentally impactful travel, which is particularly burdensome for SMMEs.
• The Western Cape is leveraging the Atlantis Greentech Special Economic Zone (SEZ), the only Greentech SEZ in Africa, which is projected to attract US$3.7 billion in investments over the next twenty years.
• Wesgro is launching a "Buy Western Cape" campaign to promote the region as a quality origin for products and services, focusing on biodiversity conservation, sustainable agriculture, and the green economy to support SMMEs with limited marketing budgets.

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} }