Black Economic Empowerment
Graaff Fruit has achieved a Level 8 accreditation on the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment rating system. This remains current and we are very proud of this achievement. Graaff Fruit is also a proud member of Witzenberg PALS.
Welgemeen
In 2004 Graaff Fruit entered into a partnership with 68 of our permanent workers, purchasing the farm Welgemeen, in which they owned a 20% share. This was also done in partnership with Witzenberg Properties and the Witzenberg Properties Workers’ Trust. The operation is a broad-based economic empowerment project where shareholders receive dividends on their investment. Welgemeen is a 105 hectare farm which produces over 3 500 tons of fruit annually.
In 2018 Graaff Fruit exited this project and today Welgemeen is owns 51% by Witzenberg Properties Workers’ Trust and 49% by Witzenberg Properties. Graaff Fruit still continues to add value to this project as Graaff Packing packs and markets the fruit produced by Welgemeen.
Romans Fruit (Pty) Ltd.
Romans Fruit is a greenfields project initiated by Graaff Fruit which has a 40% BEE ownership. The project has 56 hectares of Packhams’ Triumph pear orchards and the BEE partners are 10 of our senior staff.
The project was initiated in 2013 with the assistance of the Hortgro Tree project and the support of the Western Cape Department of Agriculture. Since then we have been nurturing these young trees and these orchards started producing fruit in 2017.
Trevor’s Farm
We are also proud of our involvement as mentors to Trevor Abrahams at Trevor’s Farm, located close to our Lushof farm. Through mentorship and shared use of equipment we assisted Trevor, a first generation farmer who was given the opportunity to develop 17 hectares of land more than a decade ago. Trevor and his son are now successful, established commercial farmers and Graaff Fruit still assists them through packing and marketing some of their fruit.
These are some of the examples of how we are adding greater value to our business and showing our commitment to the Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) framework of the South African government.