Food & Beverages

• A Polokwane factory makes 1.3 million sausages daily

Limpopo’s proximity to the greatest concentration of wealth on the continent – Johannesburg and surrounds – presents tremendous opportunties for companies with the expertise to convert raw agricultural produce into food and beverage products. Government and agencies are also looking to this sector as a means to help rural communities lift themselves out of poverty.

The successful tea and citrus estates of Limpopo are dealt with elsewhere in this journal but it is instructive to note here that the rationale behind the resurrection of the famous tea estates has been to beneficiate the produce and to enter the market as sellers of the finished product. This approach underlies much of the thinking behind the province’s manufacturing strategy, and the food and beverages sector contains massive potential for the fulfilment of this goal.

There are already a number of well established
firms operating very successfully in the province. Kanhym processes meat, Sasko operates a large wheat mill in Polokwane (one of seven in South Africa), Daybreak Farms runs a large broiler chicken farm at Bela Bela and Enterprise produces 1.3 million Vienna sausages a day and 500 tonnes of polony per week at its Polokwane facility. Enterprise is the largest employer in the province’s capital. Nola (producers of Ouma rusks, Yum Yum peanut butter, dog food, sorghum products and various oils) uses its strategically located warehouse in Polokwane to supply the northern region.

In the beverages sector, Coca-Cola is distributed through the Coca-Cola Fortune franchise, while Polokwane is the site of one of South African Breweries’ seven breweries. Granor Passi is one of several companies manufacturing fruit juices.

The Agro-Food Technology Station at the University of Limpopo is designed to uplift the quality of food produced in the province, especially by small businesses and cooperatives. Technology transfer and training are vital elements of this programme, as well as product testing, advice on nutritional values and information on processing technologies. The objective of the programme is to ensure that
food and beverage products produced locally can hold their own on the world stage, in quality, processing and packaging.

The marula fruit is synonymous with Limpopo. The Marula Festival helps to expand awareness of the province’s foods and traditional brews and
brings a welcome boost in visitor numbers to the Mopani region in February every year. Mopani worms are covered elsewhere in this journal.

ONLINE RESOURCES
Agri South Africa: www.agriinfo.co.za
Agro-Food Technology Station, Limpopo University:
www.ul.ac.za
Consumer Goods Council of South Africa:
www.cgcsa.co.za
Food Advisory Consumer Service: www.foodfacts.org.za
Limpopo Local Economic Development Partnership:
www.limpopoled.com
Marula Festival: www.phalaborwa.co.za
National Agricultural Marketing Council: www.namc.co.za

 

 

















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