PRESS STATEMENT

NEW PACKHOUSE SIGNALS LAND REFORM SUCCESS
Issued by the DRDAR Communications on 28 August 2018

Eastern Cape Rural Development and Agrarian Reform MEC, Xolile Nqatha said the opening of the new government funded citrus packhouse in Ripplemead outside Ngqushwa used by three local farmers was a demonstration that the land reform program which has pockets of excellence has not been a total failure.

The three citrus farmers using the new packhouse are Mr Zukile Mgadle of Ripplemead farm, Mr Hambile Nyamezeli, owner of the Siyamila Citrus farm, Mr Khayalethu Mpahla of Naudeshoek farm who all produce citrus on farms accessed through the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform.

Nqatha said: “The success of these farms is a demonstration that as much as the land process has been slow over the years, it has not gone as fast as we would have loved as government but there are success stories and this is one of them confirming that it has not been a total failure. There have been very good pockets of success of the land reform program.”

He said government’s responsibility was to draw experiences from successful farms and then multiply them to ensure the land reform process was accelerated to benefit more black farmers.

The packhouse was constructed by the DRDAR as part of the implementation of the Agriculture Economic Transformation Strategy aimed at commercializing the Eastern Cape province’s agriculture.

Nqatha said the province had no choice but to invest in agriculture as the backbone for economic growth to fight poverty and unemployment in the province.

“This packshed is one of the good examples of black excellence that you can have commercial farmers who are black and that success can be associated with black people. It is equally a painful reminder that had we not have apartheid these farmers could have been farmer as they are now already exporting their fruit. This is a government investment that we celebrate its success and is going to contribute to the growth of the economy and farmers have created jobs for the youth,” said Nqatha.

He added that the levels of unemployment and state of the provincial economy requires many government supported agriculture business as small scale farming was key to fighting unemployment in the province.

The DRDAR constructed the new packhouse facility that complies with international and domestic food packhouse standards in Ngqushwa after the old corrugated iron built facility failed to meet required standards, limiting markets where Farmers Mgadle, Nyamezeli and Mpahla could sell their produce.

The DRDAR invested R55 million into the construction of the state of the art facility with all required machinery, equipment complying with global food packaging standards, helping the farmers to pack more fruit without delays to reach more markets.

Farmers Mgadle, Nyamezeli and Mpahla produce soft citrus, navels, Valencia orange cultivars and lemons on a combined 177 hectares of land which they packaging for selling to local markets, export high volumes to the European, American, Asian and Middle East markets through Lorna brand.

With the new facility allowing them to pack an increased number of tons of citrus, and with some of their fruit orchards nearing maturity, the three citrus farmers plan to increase hectorage under production to 217 hectares and this is estimated to yield them 10900 tons of juicy citrus.

The opening of the new facility means farmers can now package citrus to be sold to top end retails stores in countries like the United Kingdom who reject fruit packed from the old low standard packhouse that was previously used by the farmers.

In the old packhouse facility farmers had to wait for each farmer to complete packing their fruit before another farmer could start packing their own.

Speaking during the opening of the packhouse, one of the farmers, Mgadle said they were happy that the opening of the new facility because it will now improve their operations as they pack more oranges to be sold to top end markets that could not buy produced packed from the old facility.

“We feel great about the new facility. To us it was long over due. We were waiting for this as if Jesus is coming. We feel very happy. In the old structure we had to wait for two weeks for each farmer to pack their fruit and because of that during the season we lost between 30 to 40% of the fruit to maturity because of the delays,” said Mgadle.

Mgadle said it was difficult for black farmers to access markets for their produce. “That is another stumbling block. If you are a black farmers its difficult to access the market because sometimes markets don’t trust you. You need to establish long relationships with the markets. It doesn’t come within a day or a year, it takes a long time to establish a relationship between the producer and the markets.”

During the opening of the new packing facility, MEC Nqatha joined Mgadle, Nyamezeli and Mpahla in harvesting oranges from Siyamila farm neighboring the facility and took it to be packaged by the workers at the new packing facility.

One of the workers at the packhouse, Zimkhitha Mangcobo who has been working at the old packhouse for seven years said workers were happy to be working at a new packhouse because working at the old packhouse was not easy given its structural conditions.

“We feel good to be working at this new facility, its clean, it has good machinery and working here motivates us as workers. We are proud that the fruit we pack from here goes to foreign markets,” said Mancgobo adding that before getting a job at the old packhouse she was unemployed.

The three farmers sell their oranges to the markets through a Western Cape based market agent, Lona.

Lona Group Managing Director, Spencer Johnson said because of the low standard of the old packhouse from the Ripplemead could not be sold to some of the top end retail stores in some leading markets.

“Oranges from here are sold to 20 countries which include the United Kingdom, Canada, some European countries, North America, China. Now that they have this new packhouse their fruit will be sold to top end super markets that could not grant permit for the old packhouse,” said Johnson.

Eastern Cape’s citrus production is one of the key economic features of the provincial economy as the province’s citrus farmers produce 30% of the country’s citrus exports, earning the province R3.8 billion from exports.

On another citrus farm where the provincial government is involved, the DRDAR strengthened oversight on a government owned Khangela Citrus farm operations and as a result in the 2015/15 financial year, Khangela recorded a R10 million profit, R11.5 million in the 2015/16, R5 million in the 2016/17 financial year from selling their fruit to export markets. It is estimated that in the current financial year Khangela Citrus farm will earn R24 million turnover.