Afriberry ZA was born from the desire to address partnerships between people who are passionate about farming. The partnerships will give people from  different backgrounds the opportunity to achieve success in high value export farming.

The business is operated from Rietfontein farm in the fertile Kwena valley near Lydenburg in Mpumalanga.

This brownfields project consists of 10ha blueberries in an open field hydroponic system and 2ha blackberries. The plan is to expand business through  purchasing the neighboring additional portions of Rietfontein farm and scaling the blueberries to 25ha and the blackberries to 5ha which makes more  economical sense. The upgrading of production systems and handling facilities will increase current quantity and quality of berries.

The location is ideal for berry production with high quality clean water (with adequate water rights) and a moderate sub-tropical climate that induces  maximum summer growth with a variety of cold units available during winter. This enables us to deliver berries on the market from September to May.

The South Africa industry is ideally positioned to produce blueberries for the export market, generating foreign revenue and contributing to job security.  South Africa is still a small player globally, with 5% of total Southern Hemisphere production. Blackberries is an up and coming niche product that fetch even  higher prices in early market windows, the opportunities in the northern parts of SA is very promising.

The marketing window for South African unrestricted (royalty program free) berries has allowed producers to club volumes together to fill retail programs  abroad, there is however still a shortage in volume over certain weeks that Afriberry ZA aims to fill with the new orchards that is to be established.

The focus is to deliver the highest quantity of quality berries to local and international markets in windows where prices are high. The higher volumes justifies  the upgrade of the cold packing facility to optical automatic sorting. These upgrades will allow us to deliver even higher quality and quantity with the  resources available.

The Berry-industry has potential to earn foreign currency with a high export factor, while creating the most jobs per hectare in the agricultural sector.  Virtual integration with a modern packing facility will add more value and create more jobs.