© AvoportAt the EU-African Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Summit at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange last week, Avoport CEO Shandini Naidoo (right) participated in a panel discussion on EU-Africa trade in the time of 'crazy tariffs', as the summit programme puts it. "Sharing the stage with panellists from across Europe and Africa, we discussed the implications of the tariff wars, the need to diversify our markets, the importance of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement in boosting intra-Africa trade," she says.
"Intra-regional trade is presenting the biggest opportunity. I think the statistic that they gave was that Africa's internal trade in general is less than 16%, ridiculously low. So we need to start developing farmers and the agri-processing capacity, the infrastructure and industrialisation part of the agri-sector, to enable farmers to earn more money through the value-add, as opposed to just being stuck in this cycle of 'we can only do fresh produce'."
Naidoo, a lawyer by trade but a farm girl by blood, set up Avoport in 2017. It is
an acronym for Agricultural Vendor Operation Portal, but it also refers to avocados. The company started when an opportunity presented itself to facilitate the export and local trade in avocados. "Over the years, Avoport's portfolio has expanded alongside its core business of export trade in various commodities, both fresh and agro-processed goods, to become a trade advisory that includes farmer development projects."
© AvoportOdy Akhanoba of the African Export-Import Bank, Ruan Cowley of KNUTH Machine Tools, Wingate Muthini of the Pan-African Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Michael Negel, MCA Investment, and Shandini Naidoo of Avoport at the EU Africa SME Summit, June 2025
At the EU-Africa SME Summit, she says her eyes were opened to the large farming bases in East Africa needing market access and market intelligence. "This is the key to boosting intra-African trade. Why do we have to work in silos and not collaborate and leverage of share capacities, when we can plug and play into these existing entities? As well as trying to protect not only our food security and the nutritional security of our people and the region, if we have a stronger infrastructural base, be that access to logistics, cold storage, and access to accurate market insights."
© AvoportNaidoo, former board member of the National Agricultural Marketing Council, continues: "I can't drive that concept any harder. We've seen a lot of small to medium farmers who don't know what the market demands are, so they'll just get into farming and do cash crops, and because they don't have economies of scale to compete with commercial large-scale farmers at the national marketplaces. It puts them in a very disadvantaged situation."
Speaking to German industry and trade representatives at the summit, she gained direct insights into what that market requires counter seasonally in terms of exporting fruit and vegetables. "We can take the discussion further and say, well, what can we plant specifically for you? We'll teach our farmers to plant specifically to those standards and requirements and grow our export capacity that way."
She says her legal background stands her clients in good stead in the ever-morphing compliance space, "so that farmers can have accurate information in a form that they can understand, as well as other exporters, and to leverage the partnerships that we already have."
By the end of next year, she aims for Avoport to be a full-service offering from technology to trade to market insight.
South African agriculture not easy for newcomers
Naidoo grew up on a dairy and livestock farm south of Johannesburg. As a complete newcomer to the fresh produce industry, it was not easy to win trust and procure volumes, Naidoo says, and it's still not. She tried her best to source from small to medium farmers as much as possible. Two years ago, she sourced avocados for guacamole from farmers in Venda, Limpopo Province, who tend huge old trees organically and over generations in their yards.
"And then on the other side of that is, do the farmers have the right accreditation? This is part and parcel of the reason why we are so focused on trying to develop these capacity-building programmes and projects within Avoport, so that we can have farmers planting for our clients, be those overseas or in local retail and agri-processing industry."
© AvoportNaidoo with Venda avocado farmers
Naidoo notes a disjuncture between what the public sector entities know and what the private sector entities know. Avoport acts as a bridge between those two entities, transmitting intelligence between various parts to navigate challenges from logistics to cold storage to market and research. Her goal is to see that policies are actually aligned in a more favourable and co-operative way, as opposed to operating in silos, she says.
"Increased public-private partnerships are something I believe to be absolutely crucial."
She remarks that from the outside, it might not look as if agricultural funding is needed in South Africa. "We are deemed to be a very commercialised agricultural sector, and I think that's credit to our maize industry and our wine and citrus, but behind the curtain, it's a very different story for the small to medium and emerging farmers."
Hemp-based fresh packaging worth investigating
Recognising the need for financial literacy among farmers, Avoport set up the Insights Into Africa Agriculture (IN2AA) programme, partnering with the various role players in several development projects for farmers. This experience has led them to what she calls "an exciting new development", a hemp cultivation project in partnership with the L&P Zwane Foundation, supported by the local economy reinvention thinktank of the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber. The project is owned by MasterGrow, situated within the business chamber.
"Within this collaboration, farmer training and certification, as well as large-scale hemp cultivation and manufacturing of hemp fibre-based products, will be taking place. Currently, this collaboration has over 400 farmers across South Africa who have been trained and SETA-accredited in hemp farming."
She observes that it proves, once again, that private-public collaborations are imperative to the development and scaling of niche sub-sectors of the agricultural industry.
She also mentions her concern about the implications of the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation on South African exporters and domestic packaging capacities. "Our ability to meet these new regulations is a concern. There is a ban on certain single-use plastic formats, but South Africa still heavily relies on plastic packaging. But within that regulation, there comes an opportunity for us to further develop hemp packaging, more recycled and renewable biodegradable boxes and bags."
Hemp packaging presents a unique opportunity for an eco-friendly alternative for South Africa to further diversity, innovate and the need to further invest in circular economy efforts, to remain competitive and maintain regulatory compliance.
For more information:
Shandini Naidoo
Avoport
Tel: +27 71 114 9838
Email: [email protected]
https://www.avoport.co.za/
