Agriculture Minister Thoko Didiza has stated he is satisfied with the progress in farms acquired through the department’s Restitution of Land Rights Programme.
Among these, there is the Threepance Farm based in Hankey in the Eastern Cape. The citrus holding was transferred to the Katoo Family Trust in 2005. Didiza visited the farm on a harvest day. When the farm was doing well it exported an average of 60,000 cartons of citrus a year. Due to drought, this had dropped to 40,000 boxes last year.
Minister Didiza says the farm remains a success story: “I am very happy about the development that I see here today because I can see that they have done a lot of work to develop the farm. What I’m also happy with now is that close to half of the Katoo family is employed which means that through our help many homes have got food on the table. I am also happy that the farm is producing citrus that is off international standard which means it will always be in demand for export.”
Source: sabcnews.com
Photo source: Parliament.gov.za