'The Citrus Growers Association has recognized the leadership role that they play in transforming the citrus sector. Until now the 20% levy that is spent on transformation has been targeted at black grower development and human capital development. Both these activities are vital for the South African citrus industries sustainability. More on these activities can be found in the CGA Annual Reports (distributed to every grower).
At a recent CGA Strategic Planning Session the Board resolved that CGA should also get involved in assisting growers with AgriBee. Understanding and implementing AgriBee can be a time consuming exercise. Recent government documents indicate that it is likely that levers will be used to ensure that AgriBee is widely implemented – examples of such levers include water rights, export certification and the list goes on. Although the contents of these documents are being tested from a legal and rationale point of view, there is likely to be additional pressure to abide by AgriBee requirements.
The involvement of CGA in AgriBee will be in terms of assisting growers to understand the requirements, and assisting in suggesting ways to improve compliance levels. For example, growers earning below R10 million per annum can be certified by sending an affidavit to this effect. CGA can assist with this process.
CGA has assigned Portia Gasa to assist in this activity. Portia has developed a short questionnaire to assist in understanding growers needs. Please complete this questionnaire so that we can direct Portia’s activities appropriately.
John Purchase will be covering AgriBee and governments use of levers at the CGA Citrus Summit to be held in Port Elizabeth from 12-14 March 2019.
For more information:
Justin Chadwick
Citrus Growers' Association
Tel: 031 765 2514
www.cga.co.za.