IRISH COMPANIES HAVE announced contracts and strategic alliances worth over €15m following this week’s Enterprise Ireland trade mission to South Africa.

The mission was led by the Minister of State for Trade and Development, Jan O’Sullivan TD, and supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Embassy of Ireland to South Africa.

In total, 28 companies took part in the trade mission, which marked a major drive to increase the scale of Irish exports to South Africa and the wider Sub-Saharan region.

Enterprise Ireland will open an office for the first time in the region, in Johannesburg, to support Irish companies win new business in South Africa.

Minister O’Sullivan said:

South Africa is one of the most sophisticated business environments in Africa and the importance of the trade mission for building Ireland’s exports in the area and creating jobs at home cannot be over-emphasised.

I particularly welcome the establishment of an Irish-South African business network during my visit, with chapters in both Johannesburg and Cape Town and strong support from our Embassy

Among the announcements made during the trade mission were:

• EirGen Pharma, based in Waterford, announced a deal of €3m in a partnership agreement with Equity Pharmaceuticals, a leading South African pharmaceuticals company.
• Clarigen, the HR software solutions company, announced a €150,000 contract with Silburn Drake, the Pretoria based human resources organisation.
• Azotel, the Cork based technology company, announced a new contract with Wirulink Pty Ltd through Multisource, its SA distributor. The value of contracts through Multisource is in the region of €3m over the next two years.

Enterprise Ireland’s Head of International Sales and Partnering, Kevin Sherry said that Irish exports to South Africa grew by 23 per cent last year.