BEE citrus farm beats the odds
Luthando in Sundays River Valley celebrates sweet decade of sustainability
DEFYING the odds, a farm in the Sundays River Valley is one of only a fraction of BEE farms that remain sustainable.
In fact, Luthando Farm yesterday celebrated their tenth year of existence in the valley and is hailed as an example of successful BEE farming and land reform .
The farm has for the past eight years been one of the top five producers of citrus for the Sundays River Citrus Company (SRCC) and in 2008 paid out its highest dividends to its 70 beneficiaries, who received R15 000 each.
Luthando production manager Jeffrey Rossouw said a payment to the beneficiaries – farm workers, former farm workers and their family members who belong to the Luthando Workers Trust – had been made every year since the farm was established.
“Only 24 of the 70 beneficiaries still work on the farm. It has been hard work and we had a lot of challenges in the beginning but we are really proud of what we have achieved,” Rossouw said.
Luthando general manager Nokwanele Mzamo said she was looking forward to a further “three decades of successful farming”.
“If we stick to what we are doing now, we will have a bright future. We hope that even when we have 100% shares in the farm, that our partners, the SRCC, will still be involved,” Mzamo said.
“When we started out ten years ago, I didn’t understand much about farming and it was an uncertain and scary time. But I have learnt so much and it has changed me into the person I am today.”
She became the chairwoman of the trust three months after Luthando Farm was started and just after her husband Joseph died.
“Today would have been a proud moment for him.”
Rossouw, Mzamo and 68 other beneficiaries became 75% owners of the farm in 2003, when former owner, Hermanus Potgieter, sold the farm to them while he kept a 25% share and stayed on for five years to assist the workers in managing the farm.
The trust received a 50% loan from the Department of Land Reform and Rural Affairs and a 50% loan from the Land Bank, which they paid off in such a record time that they had to pay a fine back to the bank, Potgieter chuckled.
“The five years that I worked with the trust, was the most interesting time of my life.
“In the beginning it was difficult to win the beneficiaries’ trust and it was a time of great suspicion. But together we built guest houses, a creche and kept the farm as the ‘top soil’ it was when I sold it. Nokwanele and Jeffrey also went to Europe with me to look at some of our outlets,” Potgieter said.
His voice quivers when he says that the greatest moment for him was when the trust asked him to stay on at the farm after five years when they had the choice of taking up 100% ownership.
“They learnt the lesson that you cannot become a proper commercial citrus farmer in only five years – it’s a lifetime’s learning process. I decided to step down and offered my share to SRCC because I needed to focus on my other farm.”
SRCC managing director Ken Nieuwenhuizen congratulated Potgieter on his vision to take the risk of selling the farm to his workers, and he also commended them for taking ownership and responsibility for the farm.
“We decided to buy the shares not only because the SRCC is serious about growing our empowerment business but also because it was the right thing to do. We have other BEE projects that are equally successful and are committed to training and developing emerging farmers,” Nieuwenhuizen said.
Luthando Farm consist of 78ha of farm land with a yield of 210 000 cartons per year of satsumas, novas, clementines, minneolas, star rubies, navels, lemons, midnights and deltas.