THE PARTNERSHIP THAT MADE A DREAM COME TRUE
When Theo van Rooyen and his parents arrived in the Koue Bokkeveld in the Western Cape from Williston in the Northern Cape in 1976, he was struck by the beauty of the country’s fruit-farming mecca. His father had landed a job on a local fruit farm in the Witzenberg Valley, about 43km from Ceres.
“In the dry Northern Cape I’d only known sheep farming. I didn’t know such beautiful farms existed. I also didn’t appreciate just how lucrative the fruit industry was,” recalls Theo. Yet, true to his roots, all he wanted to be was a commercial sheep farmer!
As Theo was gradually exposed to fruit farming, however, his view changed. “Due to the political situation back in the day, owning a fruit farm was nothing more than a dream,” he says. The closest Theo could get was to start a
