Cappeny Estates farm in Ballito, a town about 40 kilometers north of Durban is making history: strawberries, which generally grow best in low temperature climates, are thriving there.
When former project manager Xolani Gumede and his wife started the farm in 2013 in a hot and humid region seen to be hostile for growing the fruit, they were not sure their plan would work.
Today Xolani is making profits from his 17 hectare farm, where he grows various varieties of strawberries that seem to be doing well here.
His farm is the first commercial project of its kind in KwaZulu-Natal.
“Strawberries do prefer cooler, colder climates than the ones which exist here in Ballito. But in saying that, advancement in the varieties which we can grow have made the options of growing strawberries in this type of climate a lot more possible, the varieties we grow are now more heat tolerant than say 20, 30 years ago, and they didn’t exist 20, 30 years ago,” he said.
The farm has a production capacity of between 1,000 – 2,000 punnets of strawberry a day which are sold locally. The estate also exports to markets abroad.
Xolani took a loan of about 1.5 million dollars to start the venture. He says he is taking advantage of a gap in local strawberry farms in the region. The main production areas of strawberries are in the Transvaal with 120 hectares during summer and in the Western Cape, with 180 hectares during winter.
Xolani says he was looking for a crop that would do well locally and in the export market. His farm’s close proximity to the airport also makes exporting produce easier and cheap on transport costs.
Cappeny Estates sells most of its strawberries as whole fruit and the rest as pulp for juices and jam among other products.
The farm is now certified to export strawberries across the world having met the Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) standards.
“The currency depreciation, we find that it becomes more and more attractive to export and it also makes it more and more expensive for the imports to be brought into the country as they themselves become out priced in comparison to what we can offer the local market. So we’ve had the repercussions of the economic climate but more severe to us has been the drought,” said Xolani.
Strawberries have been produced in South Africa for about 60 years. According to the department of Agriculture, there are about 300 hectares of strawberries grown in the country today.
Source: africanews.com
