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SA citrus farmers flock to Western Cape

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(iStock)
(iStock)

Instead of vineyards, visitors to Robertson in the Western Cape might in future see orchards of mandarin and other citrus fruit.

Five citrus farmers from the Eastern Cape and Limpopo have bought land in the Western Cape in the past year, and Western Cape farmers are also diversifying and are planting more than just grapes.

Some of these farmers have removed the grapevines and are starting to plant orchards.

Edo Heyns, spokesperson for VinPro, an organisation for wine producers, and Pieter Nortjé, chair of the Citrus Growers’ Association of Southern Africa, told Rapport, City Press’ sister publication, that citrus products were becoming more popular.

Nortjé said five citrus farmers from other provinces had bought land in the Western Cape in the past 14 months.

  • A farmer from Sundays River Valley in the Eastern Cape has purchased land in the Citrusdal area.
  • Two farmers from Limpopo have bought land in Robertson.
  • Another farmer from Limpopo has bought land outside Wellington.
  • A farmer, also from Sundays River Valley, has purchased land in Robertson.

“What is appealing to us about the Western Cape is that there is a lot of labour available in the winter months,” said Hannes Joubert, a large citrus grower in Habata in Sundays River Valley, who last year bought the wine farm Le Grand Chasseur in Robertson. Part of the purpose of the purchase in the Western Cape is to spread the risk geographically.

Joubert’s flagship product is lemons. During winter, they also produce other citrus fruits and have recently started growing mandarins.

During the summer months, they mostly produce seedless watermelons, melons and squash.

“We can offer people employment all year long, and have a labour force of about 1 000 people,” said Joubert.

The plan is to transform Le Grand Chasseur so that, “in four or five years’ time”, this farm could also be employing 1 000 people. Joubert’s son-in-law Jan Rabie and daughter Christie are currently farming this land. They removed about 100 hectares of the older grape vines and have started planting mandarins. They are expecting the first harvest in the winter of 2019.

They are also still growing wine grapes and are planting 27ha of table grapes under netting.

Robertson is a suitable area because the rainfall in winter is not so high that they won’t be able to harvest. It is, however, important that irrigation is available.

Joubert said the “heart” of his business would remain in the Eastern Cape, where they were also expanding.

Heyns said citrus was gaining in popularity among farmers, especially in Robertson.

Other fruit, such as pecan nuts and tomatoes, are also cultivated there.

“What you want is that the producer is profitable,” he said.

If that meant the farmer had to diversify, then that was a good thing, he added.

“But it is also helpful to keep in mind that these things are cyclical. There was a time when citrus was cut out to plant grapes. In 2000, farmers in Elgin cut out apple trees to plant vineyards.”

He also said that the local demand for wine was growing. Domestic sales increased by 9% to 377 million litres last year after also increasing the year before.

Johann Bornman, an agricultural economist at Agri Development Solutions, said farmers were diversifying and entrenching their risk against, for example, diseases. So, if they lost one harvest, they could still depend on another.

Bornman said that although agriculture was hit hard by the recent drought, these investments showed that farmers had confidence in the future of agriculture.

“The big farmers are not despondent and they are the backbone of the industry,” he said.

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