OVERVIEW
Agriculture Transnet Freight Rail aims to double grain volumes.
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leven mill workers in Bethlehem shared a celebration with their place of work in 2021 – all of them started at the SASKO Bethlehem Mill (pictured) when it opened in 1991. The mill has a total of 96 employees and mills 144 000 tons of wheat every year. Three production lines are responsible for cake flour and whitebread flour and a blending facility makes brown-bread meal and complete mixes. Bethlehem was chosen because of its proximity to excellent wheat-producing areas and for its strategic location in terms of logistics: the busy N3 freeway is just 90km away. Engineering News reported in June 2021 that Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) plans to double volumes of grain transported out of its Bethlehem facility. VKB Agriculture is one of the companies that will benefit if TFR can increase its capacity to 550 000 tons for the season, as it plans. Veld fires caused serious damage in 2020 in parts of the Lejweleputswa District. More than 100 farms and 100 000ha were affected. When these fires were followed by flooding, a disaster was declared by the Provincial Government of the Free State in order to facilitate emergency aid.
SASKO’s Bethlehem Mill is celebrating three decades of milling. a tractor and implements to participants. Key to the growth of these small-scale operations is access to finance and the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) is a key role-player in the Free State. The launch of the Maluti-A-Phofung Special Economic Zone (MAP SEZ) has created another platform to boost the agro-processing and agro-logistics sectors.
Company news
Provincial initiatives Initiatives of the Provincial Government of the Free State to improve access to the sector for previously excluded people include: • The Chicky Piggy piggery in the Xhariep District, which has been constructed and is operational. The facility has a bio-security facility, office block, laundry, a reservoir, a tractor and a splitter tanker. • The Free State Poultry Hub Investment Plan which is targeting Virginia, Parys, Frankfort and Reitz. Five agri-parks are being constructed in each of the Free State’s district municipalities. The concept brings together farmers, traders and agro-processors at convenient sites. Support for rural smallholders will be available in terms of equipment hire from a central source, storage facilities, packaging of produce and getting products to market. As part of the agri-parks programme a warehouse is under construction at Springfontein and the Thaba Nchu abattoir is being upgraded. In Sediba, Farmer Production Support Units supplied FREE STATE BUSINESS 2022
SECTOR INSIGHT
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The Agriculture RSA division of chemical group Omnia has bought Oro Agri Opportunities, a producer of agriculture biologicals, for a reported $100-million. The purchase of a 21% stake in BKB by VKB has given the latter company extended g e o gr a p h i c a l re a c h a n d opportunities in new markets. While VKB is strongest in the Free State and Limpopo with a grain focus, BKB is wellestablished in the Eastern Cape, deals mainly in wool and mohair and runs many auctions. VKB is already a diverse group, with the capacity to
