growing their businesses. This was particularly important
“SPAR has committed to funding the capital and
given the severity of COVID-19, which placed many
operational expenditure as well as the associated logistics
businesses under significant financial strain in an already
infrastructure required for the development of the three
recessionary environment. Despite these difficulties, Distell
initial packhouses,” the company said in 2017.
maintained its over R100-million portfolio of support to qualifying SMEs,” said Charles Wyeth, the group manager
Produce is sourced from farmers and transported to
for local economic development at Distell, in the
a hub, ownership of which is shared between retailers
company’s 2021 sustainability report.
and producers. From there the produce is distributed to nearby retailers, informal traders and government feeding
The Handwork Hub, a 100% black women-owned
schemes
enterprise, was started in 2017 to supply Distell with tassels for their Amarula bottles, and has already scaled
The farmers are given training covering subjects ranging
production up to over one million per month. “The
from fertilisation and harvesting, to economics and legal
Distell E+Scalator Programme has provided ongoing
knowledge. Local GAP certification is used as a pathway
operational, financial management and production
to GlobalGAP, and businesses are expected to comply
support to the business,” they say on their site. The
with Global Foods Safety Initiative (GFSI) standards,
Handwork Hub has now reached the point where they
processes which SPAR guides the SMEs through.
can offer their services to other suppliers.
TIGER BRANDS SPAR GROUP
“We need to target the agricultural mega aggregator’s
As a company that works with perishable goods, suppliers
suppliers – the new, expert, black-owned farming
that can provide quality, fresh produce are integral to
companies who work directly with farmers to provide
Spar Group’s business. Small-scale farmers struggle to
technical and management skills – in order to incorporate
enter the market and SPAR is addressing this by actively
smallholder farmers in their procurement volumes and
transforming their list of suppliers, particularly in rural, semi-
growing plans,” said Mary-Jane Morifi, the chief corporate
urban areas, while localising the food supply chain.
affairs and sustainability officer at Tiger Brands, speaking to Farmer’s Weekly.
SPAR has identified opportunities for improvement in the way produce is provided to retailers. After harvesting,
Tiger Brand’s ESD programmes are backed by the Dipuno
produce is taken from rural areas to distribution centres
Fund, which has R100 million to offer funding along with
in the cities, and then taken straight back to retailers in
the technical and business skills that farmers are trained
rural areas. In an effort to localise their supply chain, SPAR
in. The fund is about “financing and providing liquidity
launched their Rural Hub project in 2016. The first rural hub
to black-owned small enterprises and black smallholder
was opened in Mopani, Limpopo, with two more opened,
farmers.”
in KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga, following the success They split their approach into procurement and channel
of the pilot hub.
development. The former focuses on bringing in more With the hubs SPAR is able to procure from more black and
black suppliers, the latter aims to have more black
black women-owned farms, facilitate the development
product distributors and micro-distributors. Their Market
from a small-scale farm into an SME and source produce
Access Programme has over R150-million worth of
from within 200km, ensuring freshness and quality.
contracts with black owned SMEs since inception.
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