WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2010-09-15 Time: 10:00:02 Posted By: News Poster
By Hopewell Radebe
TALKING to a farmer about how wonderful the weather has been – maize and fruit have had bumper harvests – he drew my attention to the fact that abundance for the nation ironically means low prices for the industry, and a threat to most emerging farmers, who face bankruptcy due to failure to service their loans.
The story of Handri Conradie and his brother, Frans, who took over their parents’ farm a decade ago as sixth-generation fruit farmers in the Western Cape’s Ceres valley, could help other emerging farmers learn how to exploit unfortunate circumstances by creating better opportunities for their business.
Farming methods and technology have been changing in line with international trends. The regulatory environment is fraught with restrictions on water resources, labour laws have brought minimum wages, and electricity has become a significant input cost due to tariff hikes.
Handri, who has a BSc in agriculture from the University of Stellenbosch and a master’s degree from Oxford, says innovation in farming and the search for new markets are the answer for enterprising farmers.
“Farmers can no longer survive by just selling off their crop to established agricultural business sectors,” he says.
For the Conradies, the squeeze on profits is not new; it has been creeping in for the past few years. To Handri, this meant “it was time to break the walls, innovate and venture into the value chain”.
Having worked briefly for a fresh-fruit marketer, he decided to try his hand at processing, packaging, promoting and selling his fruit himself.
Obviously he needed bank loans to build the appropriate infrastructure to process the fruit , which was not easy to find. Eventually, he “bet the farm and mortgaged everything” and “took a journey without an option to fail”.
The next challenge was convincing retailers that a small farm in the Western Cape could consistently produce, process, package and supply their chains. His concept was to encourage them to use small farmers such as him to produce and package for their in-house brands, which, in early 2000, accounted for 50% of the overseas market.
As a result, “local retailers are making an effort to expand their in-house brands and are open to new ideas”. They are diversifying and searching for new suppliers, big and small.
“In-house brands have reached about 25% of the local market and confidence and trust in their quality has grown tremendously,” Handri says.
Within 18 months, he convinced major retailers such as Pick n Pay and Woolworths to give his business, At Source Handmade Foods, contracts to supply dried fruit. “Because these are national retailers, we soon realised we needed to increase capacity and built a bigger factory, where we now employ more than 250 people full time,” Handri says.
However, it has not all been smooth sailing. The distribution chain has been another major headache. “Without taking into consideration distribution costs and efficiencies, there is no point in trying to service a market … it is a stumbling block that can destroy the spirit of an entrepreneur,” he says.
At Source Handmade Foods has now reached maturity, especially the flagship product line of soft-eating dried fruit. As a result, it has launched its own label, Cecilia’s World, to promote the production of at least 110 different product lines, including traditional dried fruit, soft-eating dried fruit, fruit rolls, dainties, bars, fruit slices and fruit-and-nut mixes.
Its Koelfontein farm continues to produce apples, pears, peaches, nectarines, apricots and prunes. Other fruit are sourced elsewhere, and it buys as far afield as Turkey and the US.
The long winemaking history of the family has not been abandoned. With Frans driving production, the Koelfontein farm, which is one of only two wine producers in the Ceres Wine of Origin Region, has expanded from specialising in Chardonnay to include Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz.
The Conradies have proven that, with a little bit of courage and innovation, new opportunities can be created from what seems to be overwhelming circumstances.
Radebe is land and agriculture editor.
Original Source: 
Original date published: 15 September 2010
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201009150358.html?viewall=1