Bureaucrats blinded by cucumber slices

30 August 2015 - 02:00 By Bruce Whitfield

You have to be either brave or foolhardy to catch a falling knife. Imagine chopping onions with tears streaming down your face and the imported Wüsthof blade slips from your grasp. Do you lunge for it, hoping to grab it by the handle but risking severe injury if you catch the blade instead? Or do you let it clatter point-first on the cold, tiled floor of the kitchen, ruining its sleek profile?In market parlance, as in life, it's stupid to try to catch a falling knife. You are bound to get hurt.That's why a forecast this week of better days ahead for the rand as it hit R14/$, by Citadel investment manager George Herman, was pretty brave. Or maybe it was foolhardy. Time will tell.Herman says it's all down to the fact that we are exporting more and importing less: "As soon as the emerging sell-off recedes, analysts and portfolio managers will give the rand the recognition it deserves with South Africa's improved trade balance and current account deficit."He'd better be right. Otherwise we have some very serious inflation issues in an economy that looks likely to struggle to grow at even 1% this year.story_article_left1Our exports could be so much higher, but we're not much good at processing raw materials.The Department of Mineral Resources helpfully defines "beneficiation" on its website: "Value-added processing, involves the transformation of a primary material (produced by mining and extraction processes) to a more finished product, which has higher export sales."Department officials had better share this little gem with their pals at the Department of Environmental Affairs in a hurry. This department has put the brakes on cosmetics exports of products using indigenous plant materials. It's over concerns the country may be in breach of Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species regulations. But it's putting the existence of potentially hundreds of small enterprises and thousands of jobs on the line.Environmental affairs is not commenting and this week cancelled an emergency meeting with affected industries that was scheduled for September 10. Meanwhile, the businesses are losing export revenue and some face closure unless resolution can be found - sharpish.Entrepreneur Kerryne Krause-Neufeldt founded EyeSlices more than a decade ago using a unique cryogenic polymer hydrogel technology developed by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. Her synthetic version of cucumber slices is used in the beauty trade to improve the complexions of a well-heeled but baggy-eyed global clientele.She won a 2011 Technology Top 100 Award for Sustainability and turned down R2.4-million in funding on the Canadian version of Dragons' Den because the deal would have crippled her cash flow. But the exposure elevated her profile, the Industrial Development Corporation has since invested R5-million in the business, and until recently she was sending her product as far afield as Japan and Iceland.story_article_right2The Department of Trade and Industry has used her as an example of how state funding can boost the chances of entrepreneurial success.That is at risk now because the key ingredient in her products, Aloe ferox, sits on the same CITES endangered list as rhino horn. However, she sources her material from a farm in the Karoo that has the required certification for the tapping of the plants on a sustainable and commercial basis. But environmental affairs is not interested.Krause-Neufeldt has been threatened with fines of up to R10-million or 10 years in jail for being in breach of regulations designed to protect indigenous plant life.She and other local cosmetics innovators are now being held to ransom by regulatory uncertainty as well-meaning bureaucrats try to figure out what to do next.brucew@primedia.co.zaWhitfield is an award-winning financial journalist, writer and broadcaster who should use beauty products ..

There’s never been a more important time to support independent media.

From World War 1 to present-day cosmopolitan South Africa and beyond, the Sunday Times has been a pillar in covering the stories that matter to you.

For just R80 you can become a premium member (digital access) and support a publication that has played an important political and social role in South Africa for over a century of Sundays. You can cancel anytime.

Already subscribed? Sign in below.



Questions or problems? Email helpdesk@timeslive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00.