Tshwane, 15 February 2018– The Innovation Hub- the Innovation Agency of the Gauteng Province through its BioPark@Gauteng Business Incubator- will host a networking session to discuss local supply and demand for raw materials in the food, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics sectors.

South Africa’s biodiversity ranks third globally, and boasts a wealth of existing indigenous knowledge. Local entrepreneurs have successfully tapped into the excess of raw materials from this natural ecosystem leading to food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic products. The challenge for entrepreneurs however exists in entering the formal raw material supply chain.  The hurdles identified include seasonality of raw materials, limited volume of supplies and lack of quality management in addition to a lack of understanding of the complicated regulatory system, among others.

This Innov8 session, will be hosted at The Innovation Hub Conference Venue on Thursday, 22 February 2018, 17:30 -20:00, and will bring together an array of stakeholders to discuss challenges that SMMEs face in breaking into raw material supply chains. The intention is to share ideas on how such challenges can be overcomed, and opportunities created locally and globally for South African SMMEs to enter the formal supply and demand sector for raw materials.

Innov8 is a flagship event of The Innovation Hub aimed at stimulating and managing the flow of knowledge, sharing R&D results and innovation amongst Hub Community members.  Each session addresses topics in the Bio-Economy, Green economy and ICT sectors. The sessions seek to attract, stimulate conversation and networking amongst entrepreneurs, established business, academics, researchers, venture capitalists & funders and public sector institutions, including policy makers / government representatives. This event recognises TIHMC’s role in facilitating knowledge flow within the provincial system of innovation.  The objective of Innov8 is to provide insight, guidance​, and networking opportunities to SMME’s to assist in the commercialization and sustainability of their innovations in their chosen sectors.