- The awards are a collaboration between USAID, Eswatini Investment Promotion Authority and Business Eswatini
- They focus on exports mainly in the USA and South Africa at the moment
- Royal Eswatini Sugar Corporation (RES) emerges as the runner up
Photo Credit: www.insidebiz.co.sz
By Ntokozo Nkambule
Montigny Investments has emerged as the overall winner of the Exporter of the Year Award, under the 2022 Eswatini Annual Exporter Awards. This was the second edition of the Annual Exporter Awards, a collaboration between the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and EIPA and BE, to recognize and reward top-performing Eswatini export firms.
Present during the award ceremony was the U.S Ambassador H.E Jeanne Maloney, the Minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade, Mr Manqoba Khumalo, and the CEOs of the Eswatini Investment Promotion Authority (EIPA) and Business Eswatini (BE), Mr Sibani Mngomezulu and Mr Nathie Dlamini, respectively.
The US Ambassador in her address observed that the event is meant to incentivize and encourage export firms in Eswatini to continue exploring innovative ways of improving their export competitiveness to get their products into markets such as South Africa and the United States. Montigny Investments as the overall winner will now compete for the regional awards to be held in July, against other national exporters of the year winners from Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zambia. Royal Eswatini Sugar Corporation became the runner up for this year’s award.
See Below winners for more winners
Winners – Eswatini Exporters of the Year Awards 2022
| CATEGORY | WINNER | ||
| Best New Exporter USA | Zoggs Ltd | Zoggs is a team of Swazi Women producing a wide variety of unique and functional handcraft with an original surface pattern design. Their mission is to produce individually hand painted functional items while providing skills and employment for Swazi women and other craftspeople. | |
| Consistent Exporter the USA | Black Mamba – Exports | Exports to US & South Africa Chilli sauces, pestos, chutneys, jams | |
| USA Runner-up Exporter USA | Black Mamba | Black Mamba has won several Great Taste Awards in the UK for their chilli sauces, and we currently export our range to countries such as the US, the UK, Germany, Norway, Taiwan and South Africa. | |
| Best Exporter USA | Golden Jubilee Apparels | Golden Jubilee is a part of Texray Industrial company in Taiwan who is listed in the Taiwan stock exchange. Golden Jubilee was established in 2018, main focus is to export under AGOA to the USA. | |
| South Africa | |||
| Best New Exporter SA | Ukwazi Macademia | Located on 100 hectares near Tubungu, about 50 hectares are devoted to a macadamia nut orchard with 14,000 trees and the remainder for general agricultural use. Since 2020, we have been exporting to South Africa. Their processing capacity made it impossible to maintain ownership of our macadamias to export further. So, we ship to Marquis in South Africa, and our USA-based brand, Ukwazi Makadamia, imports our macadamias from Marquis (South Africa to USA). | |
| Consistent Exporter SA | Royal Eswatini Sugar Corporation | The Royal Eswatini Sugar Corporation Limited(RES Corporation) is located in the North-esat Lowveld is one of the largest companies in Eswatini. The company employs over 3500 people and produces two-thirds of the country’s sugar and 35.3m litres of ethanol a year. RES manages its own Sugar Cane on two estates and also some some farms on behalf of third parties. More than 2500 families in the community are involved in cane production. RES provide housing for its employees and dependants. | |
| Runner-up Exporter SA | Royal Eswatini Sugar Corporation | Ethanol Exports to South Africa / SACU / Europe | |
| Best Exporter SA | Montigny Investments | Montigny Investment together with Usuthu Forest Products exports Timber products to South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho and Mozambique. This is a Swazi owned company with over 800 employees and one of the leading Timber growers in Southern Africa. | |
| Young Entrepreneur | |||
| Runner-up Young Entrepreneur Exporter | Prime Worx / Soap Factory | Youth Owned company manufacturing Natural Cosmetics using natural ingredients, and produce bio degradable detergents. Exports to South Africa Product(s) Body Scrub, Body Butter, Massage Oil And Soap Bars | |
| Young Entrepreneur Exporter | Smiling Through Farming | Smiling Through Farming and Supplies is 100% Youth owned Agribusiness company that specializes in legume seed business and bean value addition. The company uses Climate Smart Agriculture technologies to ensure sustainable biodiversity and has diversified into vegetables production which include baby vegetables and conventional vegetables Exports to South Africa | |
| Woman Entrepreneur | |||
| Runner-up Business Woman Exporter | Gone Rural | Gone Rural is a social enterprise working with over 700 women artisans in Eswatini. Gone rural uses design and innovation to develop basketry and table top products desirable for global markets, exported mainly to the UK, USA, Germany and South Africa. | |
| Top Business Woman Exporter | Far East Textiles | Far East Textiles is an accredited CMT textile company that specialise on making men and ladies fashion garments. Far East has traded in both the United States, under AGOA, and the South African markets. It is currently producing garments for The Foschini Group as well as Woolworths. Far East is the only Swazi owned textile company in the country, and Woman owned and managed. | |
| Social & Economic Impact | |||
| Greatest Social Impact | Tinotsise NGO | Tinotsise Make NGO produces Handwork products using grass, sisal, clay and leather craft. Tinotsise focuses on building capacity by providing training that creates economic opportunities for over 700 members mainly women & youth, 40 of which are exporters mainly to South Africa. | |
| Top Economic Impact Award | Royal Eswatini Sugar Corporation | The Royal Eswatini Sugar Corporation Limited(RES Corporation) is located in the North-esat Lowveld is one of the largest companies in Eswatini. The company employs over 3500 people and produces two-thirds of the country’s sugar and 35.3m litres of ethanol a year. RES manages its own Sugar Cane on two estates and also some some farms on behalf of third parties. More that 2500 families in the community are involved in cane production. RES provide housing for its employees and dependants. | |
| Exporter of the Year (Overall Winner) | |||
| Runner-up Exporter of the Year | Royal Eswatini Sugar Corporation | ||
| Overall Best Exporter of the Year | Montigny Investments | Montigny Investment together with Usuthu Forest Products exports Timber products to South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho and Mozambique. This is a Swazi owned company with over 800 employees and one of the leading Timber growers in Southern Africa. |