Moving South Africa’s apple industry forward
When Retief du Toit joined the family farm, Bokveldskloof, in the Koue Bokkeveld in 1992, he and his father, Pierre, decided to start an apple nursery as a sideline business. Unfortunately, this venture never really took off, as there were too many other responsibilities that needed more urgent attention.
Du Toit went on to become one of ZZ2’s farming partners, and in 2013, he and other growers in Ceres visited Italy to see how farmers there were producing apples. What they learnt was that the South African apple industry needed a serious overhaul in order to remain competitive.
“South African growers might be leaders in nutrition and disease and water management, but back then we were lagging when it came to the planting of trees at higher densities, ” he recalls.
“While some of our growers were pushing the boundary with spaces of up to 1,2m between plants, the Europeans were going as narrow as 0,8m.”
