Our History

1968
The Graaff family purchases the farm Lushof at Prince Alfred Hamlet in the Western Cape.

1998
Robert Graaff starts farming at Lushof with 80ha of pears and 20 employees. An expansion plan is initiated at Lushof to expand to 220ha of fruit trees.

2002
Graaff Packing pack house is built at Lushof.

2003
Graaff Fruit purchases a 20% stake in Leopont (Pty) Ltd. Leopont is the company which owns and manages Welgemeen Farm at Prince Alfred Hamlet which has a 60% BBBEE ownership.

2004
Graaff Fruit erects a dedicated Woolworths packing facility as part of Graaff Packing.
Graaff Fruit purchases a 7.5% share in Delecta Holdings (Pty) Ltd.

2007
Graaff Fruit leases Romansrivier farm in Wolseley in the Western Cape and plants 30ha of stonefruit at Romansrivier
Robert Graaff wins the Western Cape and National Young Farmer of the Year Award.

2008
Graaff Fruit purchases a 33% holding in Graaff Nursery (Pty) Ltd. (associates – Rosenhof Nursery and TopFruit).

2009
Graaff Packing is expanded.
Delecta Fruit is appointed to distribute, export and market stone fruit produced at Home Park Estate at Marondera in Zimbabwe.

2010
Graaff Fruit purchased Romansrivier at Wolseley and planted an additional 90ha of stone fruit trees.

2011
Romans Fruit (Pty) Ltd. BBBEE project is started. The project consists of 57ha of pears. Graaff Fruit has a 60% stake in Romans Fruit and the 40% balance is owned by senior Graaff Fruit staff members.

2012
Groenvlei Farm (Pty) Ltd. (De Villiers Graaff) purchases a 10% shareholding in Graaff Fruit.
Buffalo Fruit Marketing is established and Graaff Fruit has a 50% stake in Buffalo Fruit Marketing.
Graaff Fruit builds a CA (Controlled Atmosphere) storage facility with a 6640 fruit bin capacity at Graaff Packing.
Graaff Fruit purchased the farm Rietfontein (400ha of fruit and vegetables under irrigation) in the Koue Bokkeveld Region north of Ceres.
Graaff Fruit increases shareholding in Delecta Pty Ltd to 63.5%
Graaff Fruit purchases a 49% stake in Orange River Farm Investments (Pty) Ltd. (ORVI). The ORVI farm is a table grape farm at Aussenkehr in Namibia.

2014
An expansion of fruit orchards is started at Rietfontein.
Lushof’s orchards are renewed
A new MAF Roda high speed pack line is installed at Graaff Packing to increase packing capacity.

2015
Graaff Packing increased CA (Controlled Atmosphere) storage capacity by a further 8000 fruit bins.

Current
Graaff Fruit produces fruit and packs in excess of  25 000 tons of fruit  annually.
Delecta exports more than five million cartons of deciduous and citrus fruit from 120 suppliers which is exported to 35 countries.