British Robinson, coordinator of Prosper Africa, a US presidential/national security initiative to scale trade and investment between the United States and Africa, punted the example of Rugani Juice at the opening of the AGOA Forum in Johannesburg this week. Holding up the product, Robinson said: “This box of carrot juice represents an entire AGOA value chain, ecosystem and supply chain… Each juice box represents a supply of locally grown vegetables from neighbouring farms, 250 processing jobs – mostly women – that pay twice the minimum wage… and access initially to regional markets in neighbouring countries that then led to their entry into a lucrative US market. As a result, this demonstrated to the world that Rugani Juice could export anywhere. In Rugani’s case, they were able to access markets in Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan… and as it turns out, the buyer in Japan is Costco (the giant US retailer). It’s actually a US export with African supply.”
