Lemons are sweet for 74 Mpumalanga farm workers who have secured a 20-year contract to supply a United States soft-drink company with 875 tons of the fruit a year.
The deal was struck through Hall & Sons, the biggest citrus producer in the Lowveld, and will earn the group about R1-million a year.
A year ago the farm workers on Cairn farm, outside Nelspruit, were threatened with eviction by the Cairn Trust, which used to own the 20ha property. The company said that its citrus business had collapsed about seven years previously. The workers and their families were told to leave because there were no jobs.
Mpumalanga?s Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs stepped in and offered to buy the land for the community, but negotiations stalled when Cairn’s management demanded R1,2-million for the property. They eventually settled on a price of R900 000.
The department later leased an additional 45ha from Metal Manganese Company (MMC), which had intended to use the ground as a dump site for waste from its factory in Nelspruit.
Abel Malan, an experienced former employee of the agriculture department, has joined the farm workers
as a partner and is the managing director of their new company, Cairn Lemon Oil Project.
“I’m using my experience to get the farm running. We?re putting an irrigation infrastructure in place and some security,” Malan said.
Other companies have given loans, gifts and training worth R1,5-million, and 16 project managers have been appointed to run the project.
“This is a dream come true,” said David Mabaso, a 37-year-old community member. “Blacks can now be employers and own big companies instead of being labourers forever.” ?African Eye News Service