When visiting South Africa’s Western Cape, the thin line between the rich and poor is instantly apparent with a township never too far away from the suburbs. However, with the region’s fresh produce industry continuing to work hard to support workers and their families, there is fresh hope that the gap can continue to shorten.

According to growers’ body Hortgro, which controls the country’s stonefruit and top-fruit production, the 103,615 agricultural workers under its umbrella have 414,461 people directly dependent on support from their income, making social backing imperative for agricultural workers.

Marietjie Bezuidenhout is the MD of Norsa Community Care, an NGO that boasts three community care centres in the townships of Wellington, De Doorns and Sandhills, and she dedicates her time to supporting the families of seasonal fruit workers. The Norsa centre in Wellington provides a health centre, soup kitchen – which feeds 18,000 people a month – and foster homes for orphaned children in a community where the rate of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis remains high.

While visiting the centre, the impact of fresh produce is easy to see as a truck full of fruit, surplus to requirements, from a local orchard is handed out to grateful locals, and Bezuidenhout predicts that around 95 per cent of the adults living in the township are seasonal workers.

She says: “The parents of children around here can’t afford to buy school uniforms so their kids have to drop out, while many people will simply suffer because they can’t afford the taxi fare to the nearest hospital. We aim to provide a solution to these sort of issues.”

Despite a well-documented 52 per cent increase to the minimum wage of farm workers, many worker unions have complained about the lack of entrepreneurial opportunities available to workers.

However, one business is leading the way in promoting equal opportunity. Crispy Farms, a BEE (Black Economic Empowerment) initiative established by international fruit and vegetable giant the Dutoit Group in the early 90s, is 50 per cent owned by its workers in a unique set up which rewards labourers with shares in the business.

The Crispy Farms project, which consists of six farms totalling 236 hectares, in the Warm Bokkeyeld region near Ceres, achieved a net profit for the first time in 2006 of £557,426, and has achieved a profit every year since.

Jan Le Fleur, the unit manager at four of the six farms, is full of praise for the belief the Dutoit Group installs in its workers. “Without the Dutoit none of this would have been possible. I’m very proud that I have risen to this position and I believe the government now has to look at what we are doing here and try to support it on a wider scale,” says Le Fleur.

Le Fleur, who started off as a field worker himself, is now responsible for overseeing workers who pick fruit, including apples and cherries that end up in UK supermarkets such as Asda, and he says the Du Toit Group awarded university education for his daughter as part of its annual scholarship scheme to fund higher education for the children of promising Crispy Farm workers.

Education remains a controversial topic in South Africa. The country currently sits at number 113 in the world literacy ranking, behind economically struggling nations such as Zimbabwe and Libya, according to the UN’s Development Programme (UNDP) report for 2011 Hortgro’s Help A South African School initiative is aiming to combat this issue by encouraging donations of English language books from UK entrants, and the union says it has been “humbled” by the contributions from overseas.

“It’s been fantastic presenting the book donations made by UK children to farming schools around the region, which are playing a vital part in educating and supporting families,” says Jacques Du Preez, product manager at Hortgro.

The competition invites UK children in years five and six to create a collage, related to South African culture, with the winning school receiving a £2,000 prize towards resources and equipment. Each entrant must also donate an unused school book.

Du Preez says it is key that children on the other side of the fresh produce supply chain understand the social situation in South Africa and what they can do to help improve it. But despite the positive work being done to improve the social standing of workers, one leading producer believes there is still a long way to go.

Desmond Mudge, MD of Chiltern Farms, a supplier of apples and pears to Tesco and Sainsbury’s, operates a crèche and school centre for the children of his workers, and he insists that the government is still not doing enough. “This country is desperately short of employment because kids are being educated to the bare minimum and are not fully literate even after 10 years at school.”

Mudge says the government must now work with the fresh produce industry to ensure workers are in a position where they have “something to lose”.

He explains: “Many of the BEE projects are nothing more than political posturing and despite providing workers with shares, they don’t run deep enough to provide workers with real financial opportunities. The biggest issue is that many workers are often supporting much more than just their immediate family, sometimes up to 15 people.”

Meanwhile, Bezuidenhout of Norsa admits that she questioned her future as a community worker after a baby in the Wellington township recently died after injuries sustained from being dumped in a public toilet by its malnourished mother. She says the level of “desperation among workers’ families” still remains high.

“Yes I thought about my future, but the scope of the people we help on a daily basis instantly made me change my outlook.

“While the department of health funds our health centres, which is a big boost, on the whole, the government has to do more to improve the social situation and education of fruit workers and their families.”

With the 2013 Beautiful Country, Beautiful Fruit promotional campaign for South Africa placing attention on an ethical message, Hortgro’s Du Preez hopes it can encourage UK consumers to invest more heavily in South African fruit.

He concludes: “We have been working to empower and create jobs for previously disadvantaged people in South Africa, preparing them for management and ownership of fruit farms. It’s a significant and positive process of change for the country and many shoppers still don’t yet understand that they are supporting this investment with every piece of our fruit that they buy.” —