Mastered in four years

We arrived in South Africa four years ago full of preconceptions and enthusiasm about creating a strawberry business to feed the increasing demand for supply in our European business.

Our venture has from the outset been a farming partnership with the Windsor family based near George. A one off farming operation is hugely difficult to establish at distance and would struggle to become significant in any market we covered or hoped to develop. So from the earliest days the partnership has also included the Milhart Farming operation and the 1910 Fruit Box Company. By these means we were a part of a more significant production base and fully integrated with the enthusiasm and facilities of a marketing operation headed by Chris Charter. As so often is the case with berry production the limiting factor was the quality of plants of quality varieties. A big part of our development to date has focused on introducing the varieties we believed would creat our sales. Here we have relied on our established relationship with Well-Pict Inc. Plant Sciences and Berry Genetics. We teamed up to introduce PSI and BG varieties to RSA in 2000. here the waiting begins as all plant material requires quarantining and registering for Plant Breeders rights. The processes take 2 – 3 years and we are all well down the line before we have an opportunity to make the commercial assessment of the varieties grown under South African conditions. Well the 2003 season has been worth the wait, with valuable commercial trials indicating that both varieties introduced have an important place in the production of the George area. Both contributing to expanding sales, that other varieties could not have achieved.

In late Autumn 2003 we completed our signing with PSI/BG Inc to hold the Master Licenses for their varieties in Southern Africa. The initial partnership holds the rights to obtaining plants and producing the fruit. Key to both the security of the variety, and providing the right plant material is the involvement of Morestar Nursery and Stargrow.

The 592 and 269 varieties together, offer us both a valuable point of difference for quality fruit and a much extended season of production. We see these varieties remaining key to our farming for the next few years but do plan to introduce varieties from the program that is showing success for us in Southern Europe.

Winter 2003