Business

The Suurbraak Grain Farmers’ Co-operative in the Southern Cape recently won the Western Cape Agricultural Writers’ Association’s Emerging Farmer of the Year award. The group ascribes its success to Boet Pretorius’s ‘Farming for the Future’ model.

A South African company, CLC Solar Wind Energy, has recently developed a cost-effective gasifier to allow farmers to generate electricity from wood or stone fruit pits. Chris Coetzee, project manager of the company, told Glenneis Kriel more about the technology.

In 1997, father-and-son farming team Keith and Chris Clubb moved from their Gauteng-based farming operation to establish what is now a large commercial mixed farming operation in Zambia. Chris, a veterinarian, shares their experiences on the subject.

North West farmer Salphanius Motswenyane tells Luyolo Mkentane how farming saved him from poverty. Having achieved success on a small scale he now hopes to grow his farming enterprise into a commercial operation.

If the South African food industry wishes to compete successfully on a global scale, a viable and workable traceability system must be introduced and adopted, says Anné Calitz, research assistant at the University of the Free State’s Department of Agricultural Economics.

Since 2003, this Eastern Cape small-scale ostrich farming project has been providing opportunities for farmers to improve their livelihoods. Having overcome stringent biosecurity requirements, the project is set to expand further. Grant Hollins met with Klein Karoo Group Transformation Trust board member, Johannes Jacobs, to learn more.

Until about two decades ago, SA racehorse breeders tended to purchase stallions that were very good, but not exceptional. In more recent years, the stallions used in South Africa are world-class. The Taberer family, owners of the Avontuur Wine Estate near Stellenbosch, have made an important contribution to the sport.

Soweto businessman Xolani Ndzaba has always had an entrepreneurial spirit. He spoke to Luyolo Mkentane about how he founded Lethabo Milling, SA’s first black-owned milling company.

Four years ago, Simply Bee was selling bottled honey from 240 hives. Today, the company manufactures more than 50 products from over 600 hives, selling them at 163 outlets across South Africa and exporting them to several countries. Yet every item is still handmade in Hopefield.

The Boer goat can help to make emerging farmers successful, and they also have a large local and foreign stud market.

The big grocery retailers in the UK underwent considerable growth between 1990 and 2010. In more recent years, this trend has reversed, with most of these supermarkets experiencing a slump in sales. Justin King, former CEO of Sainsbury’s UK, explains the shift in consumer behaviour driving this phenomenon, and the implications for the rest of the retail world.

Macadamia nuts are in huge demand internationally, yet global production is nowhere near meeting this. A teamwork strategy in KwaZulu-Natal is aiming to take full advantage of the growth potential of South African macadamia production.

Over the past three years, Durbanville Hills wine cellar has saved thousands of rands simply by changing the way it uses electricity. Cellar master Martin Moore talked to Glenneis Kriel about these changes.

When Simon Txoanyana – a retired SANDF member – decided to farm in 1999, he realised he couldn’t afford a commercial farm. Mike Burgess spoke to him about how he instead became a successful communal sheep farmer near Goshen in the former Ciskei, Eastern Cape.

An Eastern Cape distributor is marketing a unique maize seed pack to communal homestead maize producers with notable success. Mike Burgess visited Border Seed Distributors to investigate why this product is revolutionising household maize yield in the former Transkei.

Retired broker, Hennie Lamprecht, runs a profitable, free-range chicken farming operation.

Frans Malela from Limpopo gave up his city job to farm full time. With no government help, he became an award-winning farmer, growing maize then cotton on leased land. Today, he mentors others.

Careful financial planning is required before moving off the grid. Prof Alan Brent from the Centre for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Studies shared some crucial cost calculations with Glenneis Kriel.

German-born Ludwig Taschner is SA’s best-known rose grower and breeder. Mike Burgess visited his nursery, Ludwig’s Roses, north of Pretoria, to learn about the building of a business that defines the country’s rose industry.

Entrepreneur Gugu Mlipha went from being a hawker to an award-winning agro-processing farmer with a turnover of R2,4 million/year. Despite her success, she remains firmly hands-on, even driving her company’s delivery truck.