When it comes to the southern hemisphere, innovation is the order of the day, the BOPA conference heard.
South Africa’s largest producer, Wildeklawer Farm in Northern Province, has grown a sweet onion which Louis and Cora de Kock hope will appeal to UK supermarket buyers as much as it has appealed to their home market customers.
The variety uses the same pyruvate tests to check on mildness as the trademarked English-bred Supasweet onion.
The company has a 4,000 hectare farm and rotates its onion crop, which includes brown skinned varieties and picklers, with wheat and potatoes. It is planning to double the size of its packhouse, which currently has a throughput of 350 tonnes a day, over the next two years.
The crop is sold under its own brand with around a third pre-packed and differentiated by colour coded netting. In its home market, to promote its produce, Wildeklawer funds consumer competitions, point-of-sale in store, and even the regional rugby side.
No comments yet