Joubert en Seuns move in different crop direction
Joubert en Seuns is part and parcel of the Lowveld, and have been in the valley since 1966 when Francois Joubert bought the farm Geluk.
A farming family synonymous with the Lowveld, Joubert en Seuns, recently scaled down, as they are changing the type of crop grown on their farms.
Maxine Eva, of Joubert en Seuns, confirmed that they cut down 128 ha of early navel trees.
“This citrus is simply not performing anymore and we are not getting the international prices either.”
She confirmed that they will instead be focusing on mandarins. This unfortunately meant that
29 employees had to be retrenched, as their jobs became redundant.
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“Several of these were voluntary retrenchments, and it made us sad, as we know that we are the main employer in this area.”
She further explained that even management structures had to be adjusted or reduced.
Lionel Eva confirmed that this was simply a case of adjusting what is productive and what not.
“Other providers in Africa are getting to the market sooner than us, which means their early navels look much better and more colourful than ours.”
He added that as a business, they had to go back to the drawing board to plan what will be profitable.
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Originally the farm produced a variety of vegetables and maize with a primary focus on tomatoes.
The Joubert brothers, Kobus and Francuis, were born and raised on the farm and so naturally became farmers.
They soon turned their father’s vegetable and maize farm into a large-scale citrus production and packing business. They now export in excess of 9000 tons to the northern hemisphere each year.
