South Africa is ideally suited to produce all 5 major berry crops, with our varied climates allowing for focused production. Distribution of fresh berries and downstream berry products will occur locally, nationally and internationally. While the South African berry industry is still in its infancy and requires major investment to realize its full potential, the labour intensive nature of berry farming is a further opportunity to fulfill a social agenda, with a sustainable commercial venture.

Central to the development of a berry corridor is Thornhill farm, a blueberry farm owned by Amathole Berries that is part of a private-public sector initiative. Thornhill farm is situated along the N6 corridor, 15km east from the Amabele village and approximately 80 kilometers from East London. Amathole Berries (AB) Pty. Ltd was founded by a private company, together with the Industrial Development Corporation, the Eastern Cape Development Corporation and a BEE partner. Amathole Berries has the necessary agricultural and market experience to establish a Berry Corridor and its economic linkages.

The support Aspire is providing is targeted at three main components leading towards the establishment of a berry corridor.

1) Developing Amabele village and Ndakana communities into an integrated rural service node.

Developing the Amabele village renewal into an agri-processing hub is triggered by the blueberry farming activities, but as well linked to the upgrade of the Amabele Train Station undertaken by the Department of Roads and Transport and the tourism potential developments at the nearby Wriggleswade dam. The Amabele local spatial development framework plan supervised by Aspire was completed in August 2009 to identify opportunities and locations of other economic services and infrastructure requirements to support the Amabele village upgrade. This also includes the identification and development of agricultural production and processing opportunities at the nearby Ndakana communities to compliment the blueberry farming activities.

This will increase the comparative and competitive advantage of the area, and will further result in the increase of other related business activities such as agri-processing ventures, transportation links (already committed by the Department of Roads & Transport), construction, retail and banking, social caring, etc with an overall positive development impact for the entire area.

Click here to download Amabele Local Spatial Development Framework
Ndakana Zero Waste Prefeasibility Report 2010 Part 1 of 2
Ndakana Zero Waste Prefeasibility Report 2010 Part 2 of 2

2) Supporting the development of economic-spin offs of Thornhill farm.

Thornhill farm requires a substantial amount of production inputs to grow berries such as fertilizer and pollination from bees; hence support is required for fertilizer production and efficient bee farming. The production of fertilizer is linked to earth-worm farming as well as composting of available biomass. This again opens up opportunities for energy production through a combination of a fertilizer and energy production plant, to be located at Amabele. Aspire in partnership with ECDC is also assisting in acquiring the necessary seed funding for the establishment of a processing plant to process and package products such as fresh berries, juices, canned jam, wine, and dried and frozen berries to be located at Amabele. Long term, a research and training centre, as well as berry tourism is envisaged.

3) Establishment of a berry out-grower wheel.

The establishment of a berry out grower wheel includes two elements: large out growers at Keiskammahoek (of 20ha size and more) and 250 small out growers throughout the Amahlathi Local Municipality. This intends to allow for broader community participation in the production of blueberries and to reach the overall vision to become the biggest blueberry producer in the southern hemisphere. The aim is to establish 300ha of large out growers at Keiskammahoek, an area found suitable for large scale blueberry production, especially for processing. The implementation of this vision will start with three large blueberry out growers of 20ha each and Landbank has been approached to consider providing loan funding for the first 60 ha. Negotiations are underway to identify appropriate land parcels.

Anyone with 1-2 ha of available land, with sufficient access to water, can become a small out grower. It is presently considered to establish a revolving fund to provide required loan funding for small out growers if required. Initially, all out growers will have an off-take agreement with the packaging and processing plant at Amabele.