Local is lekker

An innovative entrepreneur has made headlines with his (tripe) product he officially launched this week. The idea and the product, grand as it is, and delicious, however snubs government and regional economic lobbying to promote and utilise home and regionally grown products. It is ironic that the tripe is, as reported, imported from Europe. Considering that Africa is home to top quality beef and meat products, products that Europeans themselves import for their wealthy citizens and which is beyond the reach of ordinary citizens on that continent and thus, only tickles the taste buds of millionaires and billionaires abroad, who only buy in upmarket chain stores and supermarkets. The British royal family's beef is rumoured to be exclusively grown by a white Zimbabwean farmer, supporting the fact that African products are not only superior and healthy, but are exclusively for the “haves” abroad. It is a fact that meat and vegetables grown in Africa are big foreign currency earners and sought after by Europe and other countries the world over as organic produce which is superior in taste and quality (and GMO free). While it is acceptable that it could be a challenge to source the product locally, we feel that regionally and continentally, this grand initiative would have been better received if local or regional tripe had been used in the spirit of Ubuntu and to help the region and continent to meet its national economic development goals. That Namibia and other African countries beef and products have European Union export quotas is testimony to the superiority of its meat products. Let us use innovative initiatives to line our own pockets by putting a 100% African delicacy on the table. The region has realised its economic capabilities and spent billions to develop collaborative economic hubs and logistics corridors to maximise our regional potential. Regional airlines are fraught with bankruptcy not only from mismanagement, but partly because of lack of cargo to sustain their freight operations, all opportunities that Africa is ironically giving away to developed countries, as well as delivering imports that can be sources regionally. How will we support the expensive regional networks that we have put in place if as a region we do not use these corridors? Local is lekker.