According to the South African Sugar Association (SASA), a small-scale grower delivers less than 1 800tons of sugar cane to a mill. A commercial grower delivers more than 5 000tons and a medium-scale grower is anything in between.
Making the transition from small-scale to commercial sugarcane production in South Africa takes guts, a lot of know-how and a little help from SA Canegrowers.
The Mthethwa family have not only achieved this landmark but have set their sights on growing their operation beyond the recent acquisition of a 374ha commercial-scale sugarcane farm near Wartburg in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands.
And SA Canegrowers regional manager, Soren Bruce says he hopes their story will inspire others to do the same.
With the support of SA Canegrowers, the Mthethwa’s successfully negotiated the sale agreement and were granted a Land Bank loan which included some working capital for the 2023/24 harvest.
Bruce said he and the SA Canegrowers’ agricultural business advisor for the Midlands region, Dumisani Magubane, had worked closely with the family throughout the sale and loan application process to guarantee its success.
“We drew up a business plan and cash flow projections and supported the family through the sale negotiations and subsequent Land Bank application which was extensive. It has been great to see our hard work bearing fruit, ” Bruce said.
While family patriarch, Zwelikababa Mthethwa is well into his nineties and no longer actively farming, his sons Qoqokwakhe and Ntwenhle, supported by their mother, Nomashinga, are hard at work bringing their acquisition to full production.
“We heard that this farm was up for sale in 2023,” Qoqokwakhe said. “We had been looking for a bigger farm, so we approached the agent and the regional SA Canegrowers’ representatives to help us with the deal.”
The sale was finally concluded in November 2023.
“This first year wasn’t easy,” the brothers said. “Due to operational issues at the mill in the 2022/23 season we had about 140has carryover cane on the farm. This meant in this harvesting season about 700 tons out of the 8 590 tons delivered were rejected by the mill as being too old for processing. That is very difficult when you have a loan to repay, staff to pay and cash flow is tight.”
Undaunted, the family has pressed on with their expansion plans which included the purchase of two 30-ton trucks to deliver the crop to the mill. They have also planted seedcane in line with good practice to improve the quality of the crop in the future. The 11 permanent staff who were previously employed on the property have retained their jobs while 28 seasonal workers were added during the transfer process.
Mthethwa Farming started out in the 1960s as a timber contracting business in the Richmond/Eston region of the Midlands. With a nose for business and a dream to one day buy his own sugarcane farm, Zwelikababa steadily built the operation. However, in the early 1990s – during the dark days of the political unrest which broke out in KZN ahead of the country’s first democratic elections in 1994 – the business was destroyed by fire. Despite this massive setback, the family set about rebuilding the business. In 2005 they were in a position to buy 36ha at Cramond near Albert Falls in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands.
“Our neighbour, Lloyd Harries, is a commercial farmer. He helped us establish our first sugarcane fields,” Ntwenhle said.
Harries described working with the family as a privilege. “I helped with the first loads of seedcane. I helped with calibration for the herbicide applications and a couple of other things. I did what any good neighbour would do, but I have never met such a hard-working family. They were absolutely committed to making a success of their farm. They soaked up the knowledge I had to share, so willing to learn and with such humility,” Harries said.
Now, as the young brothers look to the future, they say they are already thinking about expanding. “We will get this farm working, bring down our Land Bank loan and then we will look to see where we can grow our sugarcane production further,” they said.
Bruce said the SA Canegrowers’ team was committed to the helping the Mthethwa family grow their farming enterprise. “This is an inspirational story. The Mthethwa family is building a legacy for generations to come,” he said.
