CREATION OF A GREY KNOWLEDGE DATABASE FOR ASSISTING AGRO-PROCESSING SMMES

Abstract

Often expertise is required that is not readily available to food related SMMEs in the Province. Either that, or such expertise is expensive to acquire or employ. Most company policies, including smaller and larger food manufacturing/ processing companies, have employment policies which compels retirement when an employee reaches a certain age e.g. 65. Such employees have a vast knowledge about the existing technical challenges which companies face. The Western Cape Provincial Government (WCPG) had identified agri-processing as a priority area for development. There is a shortage of good consultants and the idea of tapping into this “grey knowledge” pool made business sense. Such experts will thus be tasked to assist small to medium food-related industries. To date the project coordinator has met with the various players in the field including its WCPG partner. An appropriate consultant had been appointed, policies and procedures written as part of the founding framework and the sourcing of candidates started. An advert was placed soon to attract further candidates toward testing the process on a small scale. A database had been compiled based on vetting of appropriate retired consultants. This database was used to trial the process of assisting SMMEs. AN additional but unplanned outcome of the project was the interest generated among younger consultants who wished to be part of the database. This is described in this final report.