Avoiding slippery mistakes with bananas
A visit to the operational nerve centre of Heystek Farming, situated in the Pongola area of northern KwaZulu-Natal, reveals a highly organised and diversified farming operation that is clearly the pride of brothers Riaan and WJ Heystek. There are fields of irrigated sugar cane and green peppers, citrus orchards, banana plantations and cucumber tunnels.
Their father, Willie, established Heystek Farming, but today focuses on managing the farm’s finances, while Riaan and WJ run the operation. In addition, the pair manage a separate entity, Heystek Farm Produce (HFP), which they established in 2013 to farm mainly jam tomatoes.
Bananas, which the brothers first planted in December 2019, are HFP’s latest enterprise.
“We chose bananas because we know they grow well in Zululand’s subtropical climate,” explains Riaan. “They’re also very popular among fresh-produce hawkers. For years, we’ve been supplying our other fresh produce to local informal traders. We have a good business relationship with
