Fynbos Fine Foods

South African food producers left New Yorkers hungry for more following an outward trade mission to the big apple that saw one South African company scoop a top award.

Fynbos Fine Foods, which manufactures a range of food products that contain fynbos extracts, beat 33,000 competitors to win the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade (NASFT) Sofi Award Silver trophy for 'Outstanding Appetizer”.

The trade mission, which took place at the beginning of July, saw 23 local food producers visit the New York Fancy Food 2008 exhibition to advertise their products.

Seanne Kube, Wesgro’s Trade Promotion Manager for the Americas, who led the mission, said there remains a high demand from American importers and consumers for niche food products, particularly those health benefits.

“The key to successfully accessing the US market is through producing food products that have nutritional benefits,” added Kube.

The mission was also very successful for a number of other delegates, with order books going forward for just six of the 23 delegates totalling more than R8m.

The US is South Africa's second largest export market, behind the UK, and with the value of the speciality food and drinks market in Europe and the US forecast to grow 5% in the year to 2009 to almost $120bn, there is ample opportunity for South African producers to grab a larger slice of the pie.