Original Story Published by: Staff Writer for Farmer’s Review Africa
Photo Source: ©Jeremy Yap/Unsplash
A top South African citrus producer not only managed to bump up its production by 40% through new acquisitions this year but also bolstered its successful black workers’ economic empowerment programme in the process.
“Good market foresight which ensured a constant growth in demand for our products with established retailers world-wide is key to our success. This enabled us to make a big move and acquire four new farms in the upper Olifants River Valley, the prime production area of Citrusdal oranges, in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. This will increase our output from 22,000 tonnes in 2018 to over 30,000 tonnes this year,” says Gerrit Jnr van der Merwe, MD of ALG Estates.
“We are especially proud of the fact that our black worker’s successful agricultural empowerment project benefitted from this move as one of the new farms purchased actually belongs to them now. This will effectively increase their own production by 100% over the previous season. Their produce is marketed by us as part of the ALG Estates total citrus offering to the market.”
“We recognized the importance of doing the difficult things first and do it well and, therefore, over the years, consistently worked on increasing the range of our citrus basket which now boasts 41 different varieties. At the same time we realised we had to stretch our production season as far as possible and also systematically established orchards in different climate zones.
To read the full article, visit Farmer's Review Africa.
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