South Africa opens its doors to our strategic partner Vitagora

In September 2019, our strategic partner Vitagora visited South Africa in the framework of a joint mission organized by the South-African French Embassy and the regional council of Burgundy-Franche-Comté, the region where Vitagora’s headquarters are located. The mission was focused on innovation in the wine sector and was strengthened by the long-lasting partnership that exists between the French region Burgundy-Franche-Comté and the South-African Western Cape Province. This mission was a great opportunity for Vitagora’s managing director Christophe Breuillet to meet and visit local organizations, like the Department of Oenology of the Stellenbosch University, or Winetech, the South-African wine industry network for expertise and technology. Vitagora also participated to the South Africa Innovation Summit 2019, a great opportunity to meet innovative start-ups and SMEs. Christophe Breuillet even participated to a panel discussion about “The Effect of Climate Change on the Wine Industry. Can Technology solve the problem ?”. Thus, the mission allowed Vitagora to discuss about relevant opportunities on the agrifood value chain, from precision agriculture, down to traceability and bio-preservation.

The mission was a success and in order to pursue the collaborations, Vitagora invited Business France South Africa to its headquarters in Dijon on November 13^th & 14^th, 2019. B2B meetings were organized between food companies from Vitagora’s network interested in the South-African market and Business France SA. The meetings were very fruitful and Vitagora will continue to strengthen its collaborations with South Africa in the coming years.

As a conclusion, this confirms that there is a huge potential of fostering the intersectoral cooperation between photonics, packaging and food industry in South Africa with the objective to increase the quality and hygiene of processed products in the period 2020-2025, affecting millions of people.