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A street scene in Afghanistan. Or is that a <strong>Cape</strong> Town street dressed for the fourth season of Homeland? Credit: The Big Picture Company<br />
• Green industries<br />
• Cosmetics, natural ingredients, organic<br />
• Services<br />
• Clothing, textiles, leather, footwear<br />
• Boatbuilding and auxiliary services<br />
• Health tech and medicinal cannabis<br />
• Aerospace and defence<br />
Are some sectors recovering better than others?<br />
The year 2021 saw a remarkable rebound in the<br />
agricultural sector, both in terms of output and<br />
associated export earnings. One of the most<br />
noteworthy success stories has been in the citrus<br />
sector, with the Citrus Growers Association of<br />
Southern Africa (CGA) forecasting that the South<br />
Africa citrus industry would likely break all export<br />
season records with an estimated 158.7-million<br />
cartons in 2021. South Africa exported 146-million<br />
tons of fruit in 2020. If the estimate is reached, it<br />
would represent a third consecutive season of<br />
record export volumes.<br />
Export earnings speak directly to this with citrus fruits<br />
the province’s largest exported product in 2020, with<br />
associated export earnings of R18.8-billion exported in<br />
2020, an increase of 55% on 2019. Apart from a good<br />
grower’s year in 2020, the increase in demand from<br />
this product group globally was supported by the<br />
immune-boosting properties of citrus. Petroleum oils<br />
have traditionally been the province’s largest export<br />
commodity in terms of earnings.<br />
A number of other traditional agricultural<br />
commodities have reported significant growth,<br />
including apples, blueberries, pears and wine.<br />
Is the film sector making a comeback?<br />
According to the City of <strong>Cape</strong> Town’s Film<br />
Permit office, film bookings have doubled since<br />
2020. They report that the permits include four<br />
international projects, plus multiple local TV series.<br />
Communications plans for foreign projects are<br />
controlled to help drive audiences to go to cinema<br />
or distribution, and this could be years away from<br />
projects on locations shooting in the province.<br />
Note that our <strong>Cape</strong> Town Film Studios (Wesgro<br />
owns 10%) is fully booked for the next two years.<br />
Wesgro helped to support the amazing projects<br />
that came out of the <strong>Cape</strong> Town International<br />
Animation festival. Animation projects take years of<br />
work and are a great job creator. Many projects in<br />
production and distribution were shared.<br />
A partnership to develop more capacity in<br />
the industry has been announced, with 10 000<br />
learners being identified, 6 000 creatives being<br />
empowered, and 200 jobs being created by a<br />
series of partnerships between Triggerfish and<br />
E4D. As Gavin Watson, the team leader for E4D<br />
noted, the animation industry is attractive to<br />
young people and is growing fast. He also added<br />
that the opportunities for animation extend<br />
outside the traditional film industry, within fields<br />
like advertising, app and web design, architecture,<br />
engineering, gaming, industrial design, medicine,<br />
and the motor industry, not to mention growth<br />
sectors like augmented reality and virtual reality.<br />
Wesgro agrees with this sentiment and looks<br />
forward to further industry gains during <strong>Cape</strong><br />
Town’s Africa Games Week in September. ■<br />
11 WESTERN CAPE BUSINESS <strong>2022</strong>
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