While organic fruit farming and the demand for organic produce have been growing steadily around the world, South African producers have been slow to adopt this style of production.
During the Hortgro Technical Symposium 2022 currently under way in Somerset West, Hein Coetzee, chief operating officer at TopFruit, said a survey he conducted as part of his master’s degree in business administration at Stellenbosch Business School, revealed that none of the 1,851 participants were organically certified.
However, 67% said they applied some form of organic practices in their farming operations, while 28% said they could do more in terms of sustainable farming, even though South African farmers in general were already farming responsibly, Coetzee said.
Survey participants identified a lack of knowledge regarding organic farming as the main barrier to entry.
Source: farmersweekly.co.za
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