Having grown to produce and distribute more than 50% of South Africa’s avocado exports every year, vertically integrated agriculture company Westfalia Fruit remains dedicated to its founding legacy of excellence through sustainability.

The company owns and manages 2 500 ha of orchards in South Africa and Mozambique, with plans to invest $15-million to expand its farming, packing and processing footprint by 2026.

Westfalia currently packs 40 000 t of avocados per season, but aims to expand to between 55 000 t and 60 000 t per season through more investment in its own operations and third-party growers, including smallholder farms.

In addition to supplying local retailers and exporting fruit, Westfalia produces 3 000 t per season of guacamole at its Politsi factory, in Tzaneen, with plans to expand this to 4 500 t per season, as well as 600 t per season of avocado oil, at the Everdon Estate in KwaZulu-Natal.

Westfalia’s packing facility in Tzaneen repacks avocados for retailers according to their specification and processes guacamole for fast food chains and retailers.

Its crude, cold pressed and blended avocado oils are used for cooking and cosmetics, while the lowest-grade avocados and waste are converted to compost.  

Living up to its zero-waste and sustainability ethos, the company uses all grades of avocados and ensures no crop goes to waste.

The company also farms with mangoes, oranges, litchis, lemons, cherries, macadamia nuts, limes, oranges and blueberries on a smaller scale, having made avocado research, farming, processing, root stock and tree development, as well as industry support, its main focus.

Only 20% of the group’s output comes from its own farms, with the balance coming from investments into third-party growers in South Africa, the US, Portugal, Peru, India and Mozambique. 

This diverse growing footprint ensures year-round availability of avocados for the group, which allows it to supply major markets globally including the UK, the EU, China, India and Japan.

Westfalia commercial director Hans Boyum says the company is targeting more exports into India and other Asian markets, especially since recent trade volatility has emphasised the importance of diversified markets.

RESEARCH

Westfalia has a dedicated research team focusing on adding value through the value chain, including developing new sanitary and phytosanitary measures for farms and packing facilities, determining ideal temperatures for disease control and exploring new genetic combinations in cultivars and root stocks.

With a dedicated 35 ha orchard for research in Tzaneen, the company has grown to be the leading privately-funded research organisation in the avocado industry globally, developing and sharing intellectual property on avocado fruit and tree genetics for the betterment of international avocado farming operations. 

Notably, its preharvest research focuses on tree health, planting densities and pruning regimes, while its postharvest research looks at storage regimes and increasing shelf life.

Westfalia technological services manager Theo Bekker explains that it takes up to 35 years from grassroots research to commercialisation of new avocado cultivars, given the long span of five years to 13 that trees need to mature and produce fruit, as well as testing in different countries to take place.

Westfalia collects genetic material from ten different avocado varieties, including Hass, Pinkerton, Fuerte, Ryan, Reed, Carmen and Gwen, and combines the traits of these varieties to ultimately produce fruit that are more climate resilient, more productive, tolerant to pests, disease resistant and better tasting.

Of the 130 cultivars that Westfalia has undertaken research on, only three have reached commercialisation stage, including the Avozilla cultivar, which weighs up to 1.9 kg each.

Westfalia’s home-grown Lamb Hass variety looks and tastes like the more commonly known Hass variety, however, it has shorter seasons.

Moreover, certain members of the research team are focused on pathology, soil health and disease management, with researchers testing different fungicide sprays and frequencies to achieve optimal soil and environment health.

Additionally, a disease clinic offering by the company assists small-scale growers to monitor plant health and diagnose problems, especially as increasingly hotter weather causes stress to avocado trees and events of droughts, veld fires and high wind speeds are increasing in frequency.

SUSTAINABILITY AT HEART

To meet its goal of reducing water use by 50% by 2030, Westfalia is using sophisticated low flow drip irrigation systems, which has reduced its traditional sprinkler water use of 30 litres an hour to 0.7 litres an hour using drip irrigation.

Westfalia farm manager Ayanda Mamana says the company’s irrigation system in Tzaneen incorporates weather forecasting and uses probes to determine how much water is needed in the soil, thereby allowing for the generation of daily irrigation schedules.

The system can irrigate 37 farming blocks simultaneously, which is more efficient than with sprinkler systems, while it is also gravity fed and thereby less energy intensive.

Mamana also monitors the growth rate of trees to determine optimal picking time and fruit size.

To ensure the sustainability of its own farms and customers globally, the Westfalia nursery produces 50 000 trees a year, with root stocks being grafted on for better tree health and stability. 

The company has a growing involvement in the end-to-end value chain of avocados, with its operations having been designed to benefit its employees, communities, outside growers and service providers.

Westfalia Africa operations MD Thabo Mavundza points out that the company is increasingly using data to make informed decisions and using technology for efficiencies in irrigation, packing and grading.

He adds that the company continues to provide technical assistance to small-scale growers, including onboarding of emerging farmers and the provision of bursaries and learnerships in agriculture, to ensure the sustainability of the avocado industry in the country, especially as demand continues to grow for the fruit and products owing to its versatility and health benefits.

Mavundza affirms the company will continue to strive for excellence in avocado cultivation, research and commercial expansion, ensuring a sustainable future for Westfalia and its stakeholders – in accordance with Hans Merensky’s founding principles of the company in 1949.