“We pride ourselves on our all-year-round ginger,” says customer liaison manager to Sunreaped, Esmarie Verwey.
“Joachim Prinsloo, the farmer who manages our Kiepersol farms, worked hard to bring our ginger production to a point where we have the right genetics with a long shelf life to be able to offer year-round and consistent supply. We also prefer to support our fellow ginger farmers in the Lowveld as we routinely purchase washed ginger from them to satisfy our customer’s needs when supply is low.”
Cleaning ginger in the field in Kiepersol, Mpumalanga (photos supplied by Sunreaped)
Mpumalanga-based Sunreaped has been growing ginger for over 30 years and that side of the business has grown to such an extent that they’ve doubled their packing, storage, and cooling capacity in the Lowveld.
Above average rainfall leads to ginger shortage
During Covid, ginger prices peaked at never seen before levels – as much as R300 (14.6 euros) per kilogram.
This was duly followed by the vigorous establishment of new ginger lands in South Africa and by the concomitant oversupply.
The price has since normalized to an estimated R70 (3.4 euros) to R80 (3.9 euros) per kg.
Joachim remarks: “With an oversupply of ginger, unfortunately you notice a lot of farmers suffering financial losses. But with the prices going back to normal, it creates a sustainable, profitable farming environment, especially when grown as a complement to other produce.”
Growing ginger as a farm’s single crop would be too volatile.
“When supply is low and other farmers unfortunately are unable to assist due to losses, we are forced to import class 1 ginger from Vietnam or Thailand, but excessive moisture during the road transport in South Africa can potentially cause mould issues.”
“Bananas have become a difficult commodity to market”
Sunreaped is better known for bananas, all of which is grown on 300 ha in southern Mozambique, surrounded by other banana farms all mostly supplying South Africa.
“Bananas have become a difficult commodity to market and expand due to the lack of local municipality involvement,” Joachim explains.
“Unfortunately, a small business or entrepreneur can’t currently rely on the local municipal market to supply them with a constant volume of ripened bananas. With the result that major supermarket stores are the becoming the only ones in the position to supply ripened bananas to the public.”
Esmarie observes that banana demand normally decreases this time of year, due to the colder weather. “The competition from citrus also plays a role, but recently also because people have less money for groceries. Bananas have suddenly become somewhat of a luxury and retailers are ordering fewer bananas, due to lower demand.”
Newcomer's warm welcome by fresh produce
After almost 20 years in clothing manufacturing, making everything from motorcycle gear to flight suits for the Airforce and special army cravats for Nelson Mandela’s funeral, Esmarie was a complete novice to the fresh produce industry when Sunreaped approached her barely a year ago.
“I have never had the pleasure of meeting so many amazing people that are eager and willing to share their experience, to transfer their hard-earned skills and even offer mentoring,” she says.
“By contrast, the clothing manufacturing industry truly is a ‘kill or be killed’ environment, which sacrifices your sense of team spirit, or camaraderie, not to mention healthy supplier and customer relationships.”
She continues: “Sunreaped and most of our market agents, suppliers and customers have given me such a warm welcome as well as some solid advice. Being able to contribute to the fresh produce industry and to agriculture by using my experience in manufacturing, logistics, retail, people management and quality control is an absolute honour.”
For more information:
Esmarie Verwey
Sunreaped
Tel: +27 76 123 0035
Email: esmarie@sunreaped.co.za