In a bid to maintain the quality of service in the wine industry, Wine Training South Africa will present a one-day training course for wine farmworkers in Stellenbosch at the Landbougenootskap offices on 18 July.
The course was developed by the Elsenburg Cellar Technology Alumni Society and is also aimed at tasting-room workers and administrative staff. “Wine consumers, locally and abroad, are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their wine tasting needs, and service personnel should be adequately equipped to satisfy their needs,” said Emma Burger of Wine South Africa.
The course will cover a brief history of the local wine industry, a wine tasting workshop, the etiquette and protocol of wine service, and wine and food pairing. Students will be asked to write a short essay on their farm and the wines that will be available for tasting at the upcoming Stellenbosch Wine Festival, to be held from 31 July to 3 August this year. – Wouter Kriel Contact Annareth Jacobs on (021) 886 4310
and Emma Burger on 082 851 3164.
Heavyweights partner to train black maize farmers
gro-processing company Tongaat Hulett has launched a joint initiative with the Buhle Farmers’ Academy to increase the number of competent black commercial maize farmers in South Africa.
he Ithuba has already given 10 trainee farmers training in various aspects of commercial farming, including the planning and budgeting phase, soil sampling, fertiliser recommendations, soil preparation, record-keeping and general farm management.
The trainees have been supervised by Buhle staff on a weekly basis and were also given the opportunity to practise their newly acquired skills, while being carefully supervised and mentored in a trusted environment.
“Our medium-scale farm programme has, to date, resulted in the transfer of 98 farms, consisting of 11 871ha, to previously disadvantaged emerging farmers,” said Hulett’s CEO, Peter Staude. “We are one of the largest buyers of maize in South Africa and the Ithuba Farming Project presented us with an ideal opportunity to assist with the development of black maize farmers, thereby ensuring that the pool of farmers supplying our mills increases.”
Grain SA general manager Dr Kobus Laubscher applauded the initiative and said his organisation supported any effort that could enhance the process of integrating small-scale farmers into the full-scale sustainable and commercial farming sector.
“We are concerned that when the land reform process is completed in 2014, South Africa won’t have enough properly trained and effective commercial farmers. So it’s important that as many farmers as possible are trained before that time, irrespective of their colour,” Dr Laubscher said. – Lloyd Phillips
