Road less travelled puts Gumedes on map
Couple reaps fruits of their strawberry farm
When a KwaZulu-Natal couple ventured into farming, their aim was not to grow wealth from their business but to leave behind a lasting legacy for their children.
Cappeny Estates is the result of Xolani and Yoliswa Gumede’s effort and dedication to building a project that would outlive them.
Located 30 minutes away from Durban’s King Shaka International Airport and Dube Trade Port, the farm is one of six strawberry farms in the country.
As part of the KZN heritage and investment tour by Proudly South Africa and Brand South Africa, Cappeny Estates was showcased as one of KwaZulu-Natal’s gems.
The Gumedes’ hand in farming was merely incidental as their goal was to simply own property. The couple explained that they bought a 17-hectare plot in Ballito in 2010 but were hesitant at diving head first into commercial farming.
They did rigorous research looking at various crops they wanted to grow – from flowers and foliage to berries. “We identified a couple of crops. We did site visits as well,” said Yoliswa.
“We identified the countries that are leaders in producing these different crops. If you want to do something that has never been done before, you have to benchmark yourself against the best.”
She explained that this was done after reading up on the property sector and then approaching Trade and Investment KZN to expand the scope of their research.
“We travelled to countries like the Netherlands, Israel and Iraq as part of our research and that is when we decided to settle on strawberry farming.”
She said following their expedition, they cautiously planted their first strawberries over four hectares to minimise risk. “We have always been in business and we believed in starting small and not taking major risks because we weren’t experts at what we were doing.
“A year later, we expanded and added two hectares of strawberries to the initial four. A year later, we added two-and-a-half hectares,” Yoliswa said.
However, despite that, she admitted it was not a simple task cracking it into the small but highly controlled industry of strawberry farming.
“There’s a lot of intellectual property around rights surrounding the plants. When you buy plants, you’re not allowed to give away the plant. When scientists eventually take out their variety [of strawberry] to the market, they need to protect it.
“If you do take it up and you’re not successful, then it loses value.”
She added that they were given a set of strict rules and regulations pertaining to when and how they can grow strawberries.
“The strawberries you see in stores are not what Mother Nature offers. A wild strawberry is probably the size of, or smaller than, a 50c coin.
“It’s very small. I went and I saw what wild strawberries look like in Iran.
“They’re not very sweet, not commercially appealing. To get to the strawberry you see, [the one] that’s heart-shaped and beautiful, and red and juicy, somebody sits in a lab somewhere and creates that variety. It’s not something that just happens. It can take up to two years.”
But, despite the hard learning curves, the Gumedes have enjoyed relative success as Shoprite, Checkers and Pick n Pay often place orders for strawberries they produce.
“We have also ventured into selling strawberry jam, granola and leather [driedfruit roll].
“In the long term the plan is to diversify the farm to include a restaurant and hotel to add to the dam and recently completed all-purpose venue,” Yoliswa said.