Mahela

COMPANY PROFILE

2014

Mahela

Superior quality citrus

Superior quality citrus CompANY PROFILE

Editorial: Lauren Grey Production: James Clark Situated in the Letsitele Valley in the Mopani district of Limpopo, Mahela Boerdery first cultivated citrus fruits in 1950, and has since grown to become the largest producer of Star Ruby grapefruit in South Africa. IndustrySA speaks to Managing Director, Barend Vorster to find out the secret to its success.

Mahela Boerdery (Pty) Ltd was first established in 1942 by the late BJ Vorster, who originally used the land to farm potatoes, tomatoes and rice for the local market.

However, in 1950 Vorster began cultivating the land ready for his first batch of citrus fruits, and was soon given the name “Mahela” by the local people, meaning “quick, no non-sense”. The variety of citrus fruits that he grew at the Mahela farm soon expanded and Vorster began exporting them to various countries around the world.

Presently, the farm is run by the third generation of Vorsters, with father Edward, together with his sons Barend, Pieter, Eddie and Francois managing the widely diversified operations which take place.

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SUPERIOR QUALITY CITRUS Mahela Boerdery has several brands under which it markets its produce, with three brands alone for the marketing of its citrus fruits; Mala Mala Citrus, Makulu Citrus and Mahela Citrus.

Managing Director, Barend Vorster says that the company produces enough high-quality citrus fruit to be able to market it with three different brands.

“We produce 60,000 tons of fruit per annum, and are one of the largest citrus producers in the whole of South Africa. This allows us to market our citrus fruits with three high-quality brands, which prove that we are proud of our product to market in our own brand.”

Annually, Mahela produces close to three million cartons of citrus fruits in the Letsitele and Hoedspruit areas, and every carton of quality produced citrus

Mahela Boerdery

is done in accordance to Global Gap international standards.

Current production consists mainly of citrus fruits such as Valencia oranges, Star Ruby grapefruits, Midknight, Turkey Valencia and Delta Valencia, but diversification into bananas, avocadoes, macadamia nuts, litchis and mangoes have recently been undertaken with great success.

“The reason we focus on Valencia oranges,” explains Vorster, “is because this particular area of farmland in Letsitele Valley produces them with such superior quality, and we are known for our superior quality produce.

“The Star Ruby grapefruit also grows extremely well in this area. In the beginning, when the Star Ruby was released from the US, they did not realise it would

grow so well here, but we are now producing the highest quality of anywhere in the world.

The production of citrus fruit at Mahela is mainly geared towards the export market, with a small percentage going to local markets and for processing into fruit juices, as Vorster explains.

“We supply worldwide to about 42 countries, including Russia, Europe, The United Kingdom, Japan and many more. We also supply fruit into African markets.

“Any fruit that is left over and doesn’t go to export we send to local processing plants to be used as juice concentrate; we have a stake in a juice plant.”

Mahela Boerdery can also boast as being one of only two citrus nurseries in Limpopo having accredited citrus nursery status, the Letsitele Nursery, which

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CompANY PROFILE adheres to the strict requirements of the South African Citrus Improvement Scheme. The nursery supplies young citrus trees commercially.

HIGH-TECH According to Vorster, many factors contribute to the superior quality of Mahela’s fruit including growing conditions, packaging and technology, and for Mahela, the best way to ensure that fruit was being packed correctly, was to have an on-site pack house.

“We achieve a much better result in quality consistency because we have our own state-of-the-art pack house; it allows us to oversee and control the process right from picking the fruit to packaging it.

“We are also involved in a co-operative which owns its own carton manufacturing plant. We initiated the co-operative many years ago, and we are now coowners of the plant which supplies boxes for Mahela and other farms.”

Mahela Boerdery also boasts some of the most sophisticated technology in the industry, required to produce citrus on such a massive scale.

“We make use of the best technology available and consult with the professionals to make sure we are

using the best equipment to optimise product quality.

However, we do try to be economically productive and work closely with nature to ensure we are not damaging our natural environment, which is very important to us as farmers.”

FAMILY MATTERS More than just being a family business, Mahela invests time in each of its employees, from fruit pickers to senior management, nobody gets left behind.

“I think it is very important that you invest in your employees,” says Vorster, “these are the people doing the job, if you don’t have trust and faith in them you will not go forward as a business.

“We believe in supporting our people and in order for us to grow as a business we need to ensure we train our staff so that we have the best team to do the job, and I believe we have that.”

Vorster recalls an example of how he himself invested in one individual because he recognised great potential.

“I personally identified one of the children on the farm who used to play with my children, I took him through school and we subsidised him at university.

Managing Director Barend Vorster

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“He has been employed with us for two years now, and we intend to invest in him further as a company because he could go on to do great things for us. That is just one positive example of how we invest not only in our staff, but their families too.”

Mahela employs over 1100 seasonal workers, with 500 permanently employed at any given time.

On-going training for their employees, including the use of computers, forms an important part of the company’s vision to provide a better standard of living for all of its employees.

Some of the profits from the products sold on the international market have been used to build two schools on the farm and the children of workers at other farms in the area also attend classes here.

Several crèches have been established on the various business units, boasting properly trained personnel.

Training, skills development, life skills training and adult literacy classes are among the aspects covered by the farm’s on-going education programs initiatives.

GAME BREEDING In addition to the commitment to its employees, Mahela is also committed to conservation and is

involved in a game breeding project which started in 1998.

The project, known as B. J. Vorster Game, involves rare sable antelope and included in the gene pool is the highly sought-after Western Zambian specie.

The Sable Breeding Project together with the University of Pretoria also developed a vaccine for the Sable antelope against the disease Theileria.

With sable antelope fetching premium prices at game auctions, the sable project is an important component of future game farming operations.

Buffalo have also been introduced as part of Mahela’s game farming portfolio, but the pride of Mahela’s game farming interests is an African wild dog conservation project.

In cooperation with the Wild Dog Action Group and the De Wildt Cheetah Project, we work to protect the species of wild dog that occur in the area, with excess animals being donated to other reserves in South Africa.

“Conservation is very important to us; it is very close to our hearts. Everything we do we try to do economically to minimise the damage on our natural environment. After all, we rely on the natural

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CompANY PROFILE

environment to grow the superior quality of fruit,” says Vorster.

GOING FORWARD Business wouldn’t be business without coming up against a few hurdles along the way, and very recently the EU has been drawing up plans to ban South African imports of citrus fruit.

“There are always challenges in business; in this industry we have no choice but to be price takers rather than price makers, because there is so much competition. This hasn’t stopped us in the past though, and I doubt it will stop us in the future,” says Vorster.

Going forward, Vorster says that business will run as normal with all the new challenges, and Mahela will continue to produce superior quality citrus for the export market. We have the expertise to supply what the market want. He also says that the company is looking to grow its avocado and banana business.

“We are open for business and will produce any variation of fruit which has high enough demand and that we can grow at the same superior quality as our citrus.

“And we may start investigating sugar cane and mandarin types in the future.

“Family businesses are strong businesses and we will withstand more generations to come.”

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“Everything we do we try to do economically to minimise the damage on our natural environment. After all, we rely on the natural environment to grow the superior quality of fruit”

TEL : Mahela Boerdery 0153072879 0153060232 0153060322 FAX : 0153071068 CLIFF CELL : 0795183912 CLIFFIE : 0769021700 EMAIL : cliffwiggill@telkomsa.net ADDRESS : 18 Antimony St, New Industrial, Tzaneen, 0850

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+27 015 345 1600 www.mahelagroup.com

(0)1603 618 000 info@industrysa.com East Coast Promotions Ltd, Ferndale Business Centre, 1 Exeter Street.

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