Business partners Jonathan Willows and Laine Collet produce 7 000t of Cayenne pineapples every year from approximately 14,5 million plants across 250ha.

Their pineapple venture, on the 647ha farm Brooklyn near East London, was born from a sense of vulnerability that Willows and his late father, Jack, had experienced in 2019 while navigating their dryland dairy farm, Burnside, through a grinding drought.

A decision was then promptly made to diversify with a more drought-resilient agricultural venture, and Willows approached Collett, an agricultural economics graduate from Stellenbosch University, to partner with him in this new initiative.

After significant research and a visit to South Africa’s largest pineapple producer, Mark Harris, in Bathurst, Willows was convinced that the pineapple’s resilience to drought conditions and the crop’s dollar-based price made it a wise option with which to diversify.

“Therefore, it was for strategic reasons that we started with pineapples,’’ says Willows.

“They seemed to be the perfect crop as they would give us dairy farmers a hedge not only against droughts but also against the rand-dollar exchange rate, because the price paid for pineapples would be dollar-based.’’

Turning to pineapples

In 2019, the once-productive pineapple farm of Brooklyn, located several kilometres from Burnside, provided Willows and Collet with an opportunity to sign a long-term lease with the farm owners. “We knew Brooklyn was well suited for pines,’’ recalls Collet. “So, we jumped in and basically started from scratch.’’

Getting the farm up and running, however, presented the partners with significant challenges. Firstly, access to Brooklyn was not only dependent on a neglected municipal road.

However, the pineapples that were left on the property (from which they managed to harvest just 444t in the first two years) were being stolen by the bakkieload as the boundary fence had disintegrated.

Perhaps most frustrating of all was their battle to leverage credit to begin getting pineapple plants into the Bonheim-type soils of Brooklyn at a cost of more than R100 000/ha.

“We couldn’t get loans and scratched and clawed for funds to get going,’’ says Willows.

“Once we did get going, though, banks became willing to loosen credit, but that didn’t help us in the beginning.’’

Nevertheless, by 2021, Willows and Collet had, against all odds, managed to deal with most of Brooklyn’s teething problems and had also crucially planted 7,1 million pineapple plants to begin the production cycles that would eventually see fruit delivered to the East London-based juicing facility, Summerpride Foods.

Managing the pineapple production cycle

Initially, planting material for Brooklyn was sourced from various Bathurst pineapple farmers, but today the crowns of their own fruit are more than adequate for their requirements.

“Your own crowns are sufficient once you’re in cycle as you are always picking double than what you are planting,’’ says Collet. “So, one can become selective and choose the best material for specific parts of the farm.’’

Although the production cycle for pineapples from planting to replanting can be as long as seven years, on Brooklyn, a cycle is completed in 4,5 years.

This is due mainly to the favourable heat units of the region, which allows for the faster growth of fruit and therefore on Brooklyn, fruit (of an optimal size of 1,4kg plus) is first harvested between 18 and 24 months from planting and then again 18 months later.

Immediately after the second picking, the pineapple plants are knocked down and mulched to facilitate aerobic breakdown in anticipation for the next planting.

The fallow period from plant knockdown to replanting is stretched over two years by some producers, but on Brooklyn it is completed in a year to not only accelerate production, but also because spent plants are cut for silage destined for Burnside’s dairy cows (with a peak of 1 200 cows in milk in spring).

“As much as 60% of the 200 to 300t of wet plant material per hectare is cut for silage,’’ says Collet. “This leaves us with a lot less plant material but still enough to be broken down into the soil before planting.’’

Any pineapple venture must be defined by staggered production to ensure enough marketable fruit for at least 10 months of the year.

Besides planting pineapples at different times, the understanding of the impact of topography on fruit growth (fruit on northern slopes, for example, grows faster than fruit on southern slopes) can be very useful when planning the harvesting of fruit.

But Collet says that flower induction (nine months after which fruit can be harvested) is maybe the best tool with which to plan accurate long-term staggered harvesting regimes.

Comprehensive spraying programmes

Although the coastal belt near East London is defined by hot, humid weather that allows for a quicker production cycle and sweeter pineapples, the downside is that heat fuels the proliferation of pests, disease and weeds.

Nematodes, (pre-plant) mealybug, black maize beetle, and bacterial heart rot (post-plant) are constant threats and are dealt with through comprehensive pre-plant fumigation and spray-programmes (with a range of insecticides and fungicides) while weeds are kept at bay via a herbicide spraying programme targeting the lands four times from planting to the last harvest of fruit.

According to Collet, the discontinuation of certain insecticides and fungicides can be a major challenge as often no alternatives are made available and he is therefore investigating certain alternative preventative measures.

“I’m starting to look into mechanical control measures for nematodes,’’ he says.

“For example, when we have nematodes in a certain land, we plough it up and try and expose [the nematodes] to sunlight in order to decrease the population.’’

Efficient fertilisation is pivotal in producing quality pineapples and application is determined by the analysis of comprehensive soil samples.

“Fertilisation programmes are based on the analysis of soil samples that will highlight specific deficiencies in specific areas,’’ says Collet.

“We will then manage the fertilisation programmes on the ground with spraying rigs accordingly from pre-plant to harvest.’’

Market and labour

Brooklyn is just 30km from Summerpride Foods in East London and pineapples are transported to the juicing facility by haulage tractor and trailer, with a capacity of 22t at a cost of R70/t. Transport costs for many pineapple producers farming further afield are as much as R300/t as their fruit must be trucked in to Summerpride.

“The fact that we are just 30km away from our market is a significant advantage,’’ says Willows. “Running trucks is expensive – because of exorbitant licence and insurance fees, as well as expensive mechanical repairs – a cost we can avoid with a tractor driver and a standard licence.’’

Incidentally, Willows also has another haulage tractor and trailer delivering pineapple peel from the Summerpride facility to Burnside, where it is fed to the dairy herd all year long.

“We feed huge amounts of pineapple peel,’’ he says. “It is of huge value to the dairy.’’

Although producing pineapples can be labour-intensive (with 15-20 permanent and up to 30 casual staff at any given time on Brooklyn), resulting in a significant wage bill, there has been an unexpected silver lining in terms of on farm security.

“The more people we hire the more positive an impact we have on the community,’’ says Collet. “This has resulted in members of the community being on our side, and theft has decreased significantly since 2019.’’

After five years on Brooklyn, Willows and Collet are still focused on expansion and plan to establish a further 60ha of pines in the next three years (20ha a year) to maximise production to just over 300ha on a farm that by then will truly have been resurrected to its former glory.

Phone Jonathan Willows on 072 651 0671.