Phalaborwa: Marula fruit a source of income
“I have put my child, who now works at PMC, through school using the money I have earned by selling the fruit to prospective businesses and beer to local people who wish to enjoy the drink.”
Two sisters are collecting the fruit from marula trees and are brewing beer as their only source of income.
Doris and Anna Seamele say their main source of income is brewing marula beer to sell.
On a plot of no bigger than 40m², both ripe and unripe fruit are collected and sorted.
Ripe fruit goes onto a heap and into the water to start the brewing process. The unripe fruit is packed into sacks for potential buyers.
The two sisters say that they have been collecting the fruit in Phalaborwa for more than 15 years without skipping a season.
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Anna, the younger sister, explained that collecting fruit is not as easy as it might appear. After collecting they have further challenges such as finding buyers for their fruit.
“It was better a few years ago. We used to sell marula sacks to the Amarula company. However, we do not know what has become of them. Word is they closed shop and now we have to rely on selling beer and sacks to other businesses,” explained Anna.
“At this stage, we do not know if the lady who buys sacks from us will purchase, because we heard that she is having problems obtaining some sort of license to sell the beer,” continued Anna.
She also explained that she and her sister do not make jams or any creams. They only sell the fruit and the nut to those who have use for them.
“However, we have hope and we know that God always provides for his children. Without these fruits we are nothing,” exclaimed Anna.
READ: Phalaborwa: It’s Marula Festival time
“We have been relocated so many times over the years, but now we are grateful that Foskor gave us this little portion (a section at Mopanie Street) and we have not been disturbed,” explained Anna.
The sweet aroma of the marula fruit fills the air at their ‘collection bay’. They are worried that they will not get a buyer for the larger quantities (sacks).
“We have never been invited to sell our beer at the stadium during the Marula festival. We would like to be a part of it. We have the capacity to fill a big drum with marula beer but we need to be given a chance to do so,” stated David Malatji, the area caretaker.
“We have been collecting in town even before there were malls and we will keep collecting, but now we just need to be a part of the Marula festival. We want our beer to be drank at the stadium as well,” stated Malatji.
