STRENGTHENING TRADE INDIA & SOUTH AFRICA

At Aspen Pharmacare's Port Elizabeth manufacturing facility, we are one of the world's largest consumers of active pharmaceutical ingredients — and India is, by a significant margin, our most important API source country. Gujarat and Hyderabad manufacturers supply 60-70% of our API volume across our global product portfolio. The quality of Indian cGMP API has improved dramatically over the past 15 years — our audits of Indian API facilities consistently show strong compliance with Aspen's internal standards and SAHPRA/WHO expectations. For South African procurement specifically: SAHPRA registration is our gateway requirement, and Indian API suppliers with existing WHO-GMP pre-qualification move through this process significantly faster. The price advantage of Indian APIs versus European alternatives is typically 35-50% for equivalent quality — in a competitive generic market like South Africa (where the Competition Commission has driven down medicine prices), this is the difference between being able to manufacture a generic or not. My practical advice: have your CEP (Certificate of Suitability with the European Pharmacopoeia) in order if you want the fastest path to Aspen procurement approval.

Anglo American Platinum's Rustenburg operations — the world's single largest platinum producing complex — runs on sophisticated procurement systems, and Indian industrial equipment plays an important role. We use Kirloskar Brothers pump sets for our water management systems (13 units across Bathopele, Khomanani, and Siphumelele mines), and WPIL pumps for our process water circuits. The quality matches what we'd expect from equivalent European suppliers at 28-35% lower cost — and critically, spare parts supply from India is fast: emergency parts to OR Tambo and then truck to Rustenburg in under 72 hours from Mumbai via air. Our supplier qualification process requires ISO 9001:2015, full technical data packs (pump curves, material certs, dimensional drawings), and two-stage factory inspections. Indian manufacturers who have worked through these requirements in other markets (where we have global operations in Brazil and Chile) are already qualified in our global system — this is a genuine advantage. The 1.3 million-strong South African Indian community in KwaZulu-Natal means there is excellent cultural and commercial understanding between Indian and South African business people.

My family has been in the Grey Street textile district of Durban for four generations — my great-grandfather came from Gujarat in 1904. We operate three textile shops on Victoria Street and supply Indian fabric and garments to retailers across KwaZulu-Natal. The South African Indian community's appetite for Indian fashion is enormous and growing — new diaspora arrivals from India, second and third-generation Indian-South Africans reconnecting with their heritage, and a surprising number of non-Indian South Africans who have fallen in love with Indian fashion since Bollywood's global reach expanded. Indian suppliers who visit the Grey Street district will immediately understand the commercial opportunity: this is one of the most concentrated Indian retail markets outside India itself, all within a few city blocks in Durban. For new Indian exporters: the Durban port is efficient, SARS customs at the Durban Container Terminal is professional, and the Standard Bank trade finance desk in Smith Street knows India trade inside-out. Come and see it yourself — Grey Street will change your understanding of what the Indian diaspora market can be.