From berries to boom on Cape farm
Strawberry fields get one of first licences to grow medical dagga
● There must have been a few sniggers in the winelands when the Zetler family first planted strawberries on their farm outside Stellenbosch. Zetler strawberries are now distributed across SA.
Fast-forward 50 years and nobody is laughing as the Zetlers prepare to plant more than 14,000m² of dagga in hi-tech greenhouses on their famed property.
The hills are alive not with the sound of combine harvesters but with hydroponic innovation, as SA’s green revolution ploughs up farming orthodoxy in the agricultural heartland.
The Zetler brothers of Polkadraai farm — Barry, Leslie and Julian — are repurposing some of their greenhouses and building others to plant what many consider to be the cash crop of the future — non-psychoactive cannabis — on the back of a cultivation licence from the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra).
They are allowed to produce 20t a year of dried cannabis that will end up as medical products ranging from anti-anxiety drops to food supplements. Their licence covers an existing greenhouse, and they have earmarked and an additional 40,000m² for future expansion.
The brothers’ trading company, Felbridge, is one of five new cultivation licensees on the dagga front line, amid an avalanche of applications for the three sub-sectors of the trade — cultivation, manufacturing and retail.
As usual, the Zetlers were ahead of the curve, being the first existing commercial cultivator to get a cannabis licence. They said the Constitutional Court ruling a year ago about personal dagga use and subsequent relaxation of drug schedule regulations opened a floodgate that could soon create further avenues for cannabis exploitation.
“We were following it quite closely and watching what was happening overseas,” said Leslie Zetler. “As soon as the application process started, we jumped at it.”
The brothers believe their long history with greenhouse cultivation gives them a head start on their competitors, though dagga greenhouses have strict additional requirements, including security measures.
“We have been farming in greenhouses for over 30 years,” said chief financial officer Barry Zetler. “We like to see ourselves as innovators. The cannabis crop being a new crop, it suits our role as leading the way.”
Dagga farming will require workforce upskilling and result in new export opportunities, particularly with the growth of new product categories such as cannabis-infused foods and cosmetics — already available in Canada, the brothers said. The company looks set to add to its about 600 workers.
What of the plant’s narcotic qualities? “We don’t smoke — between the three of us we have never used it,” said Leslie. “None of us has even touched a cigarette — our mother was very strict on us.”
Some stakeholders have called on the government not to ruin the window of opportunity by dragging its heels over further regulatory reform.
“It is not an easy sector — how does government play a role in assisting?” asked Brylyne Chitsunge, CEO of Elpasso Farms, who has jumped on the cannabis bus with research and business partners including Harvard Medical School and a US company specialising in the development of cannabinoidbased medicines.
“There is room for everybody to participate … But it has to be done properly,” said Chitsunge, adding that cannabis also presents a chance for the government to ensure broad-based participation in the new green economy.
Chitsunge said research into cannabis could also open up other markets and other natural medicine products. “Just look at the percentage of Africans on the continent that use natural medicines — it is phenomenal,” she said.
“We might even stumble upon something even better. Yes, cannabis is very exciting but it is important that we now start mapping our natural herbs.
“We are calling it health and wealth — health for the people and wealth for the herbalists, because they can retain their intellectual property.”
Cape Town businessman Tony Budden, owner of the Hemporium, which specialises in hemp products, said one potential blot on the otherwise sunny horizon is a massive regulatory backlog in Sahpra’s medical product applications, with approval times of up to five years.
Without a turnaround in government efficiency, the promised green land could be realised abroad, said Budden.
The government should also consider further legal reform to create the first openly regulated market outside of North America by “down-scheduling” dagga from its current drug schedule 7 rating in terms of health regulations — with only cannabidiol, or CBD, products now dropped to schedule 4 and therefore commercially available, he said.
“Some other countries are opening up. If we just stick to cultivation and a few manufacturing licences, it won’t give us the opportunity to really expand.”