COMESA Summit ends, new chair appointed

[Gregory Gondwe] The 15th COMESA (Common Market for East and Southern Africa) Summit of Heads of State and Governments came to an end on Saturday 15 October 2011 with the announcement of the newly appointed chairman of COMESA, Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika. Read more >>

Advance Seed taken over by Alliance Grain Traders

Alliance Grain Traders (AGT) has acquired 100% controlling interest in South Africa-based Advance Seed, and its subsidiary Pouyoukas Foods (collectively "Advance Seed") from Euro-Africa Trading, a European-based holding company and the Brian Lever Family Trust. Read more >>

MP critical of biological products company

The Onderstepoort Biological Products Company (OBP) received a qualified report from the Auditor-General (AG), and faced a stern warning from MPs to get its house in order. OBP is responsible for the prevention and control of animal diseases which impact on food security, human health and the livelihood in the country. The company falls under the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. Read more >>

WTC Africa Initiative and Italy join hands in trade

Following a trade agreement reached between the World Trade Center Africa Initiative and Italy, business between Africa and Europe is set to receive a significant boost. The agreement will see business leaders from 12 African countries meet their Italian counterparts in on-site deal rooms next year, at the inaugural Afritalia Commerce Exchange. Read more >>

South Africa to establish a national farmer register

Following a call to roll out a national farmer registration process, KwaZulu-Natal will become the first South African province to establish an up-to-date register of all its agricultural producers. The process is set to establish a central database to tackle issues like insufficient data and requests for baseline information about farms and farmers who interact with the government. Read more >>

Organic market not a fad

Fads have a limited life-span, but the organic goods survived the trend. Instead of following the typical boom-to-bust cycle, organic produce has been elevated to a lifestyle choice as people become carbon-footprint conscious. Unfortunately, with the rise in popularity of organic living, "greenwashing" has become rampant and words like green, organic, recycled, eco-friendly and natural are used by some marketers to mislead consumers about companies' practices. Read more >>

Thousands lose jobs as timber production wanes

At least 12 500 workers have lost their jobs in the forestry sector since 2008 according to Michael Peter, executive director of Forestry South Africa, mainly as a result of the sharp decline in timber production, which dropped from 19-million tons in 2008 to 15-million tons in 2010. Read more >>

EXCLUSIVE: New Brand Council of SA announces office bearers

The board of the new Brand Council of South Africa (BCSA) has elected HKLM's Sean McCoy as chairman, and Interbrand Sampson's Jeremy Sampson and Brand Leadership's Thebe Ikalafeng as joint vice chairs. The BCSA, incorporates the Brand Design Council (formerly known as THINK), was constituted after extensive debate around the need for a collective voice to represent, strengthen and advance the interests of the wider branding and design industry in SA, and it. Read more >>

Rolling Stone South Africa: the first in-depth interview

[Johann Smith] "Rolling Stone" - it was the writing on the wall found backstage at Rocking the Daisies. It was a hint, a secret, that the writer wanted musicians to know first, before anyone else. There is no way of saying it better: Rolling Stone magazine is coming to South Africa in November 2011. Johann Smith and Ruth Cooper of Bizcommunity.com's BizLounge speak to Miles Keylock, editor-in-chief of RS SA. Read more >>

South Africans are overweight - survey

South Africans weigh in as the third fattest nation on earth. A survey done in 2010 by Glaxo SmithKline has found that 61% of the South African population are overweight or morbidly obese. In addition to this survey, a study done by the Medical Research Council in 2007 found that 56% of adult women and 29% of adult men in South Africa were overweight or obese. Read more >>

Unions to picket at Wal-Mart/Massmart hearing

The Congress of SA Trade Unions' (Cosatu) and the SA Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union (Saccawu) on Monday announced their intention to embark on "mass pickets" at the Wal-Mart-Massmart appeal hearing in Cape Town set for Thursday and Friday, 21 - 22 October 2011. Read more >>