Cape Town - A farmer who started out selling fruits at an early age is now one of the locals tapping into the international market as an exporter.
Wayne Mansfield, born and bred in Kylemore just outside of Stellenbosch, said his business did not suffer at the beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak but things changed towards the end of the year.
“The pandemic started quite nice for us but towards the end of the year it was not good; now I’m waiting to see how we’ll do in the next season, starting next month,” he said.
"We had to learn and adapt very quick but we managed because we did and still do everything according to the guidelines from government," he said.
He said his employees come from very rural communities so he tries to teach them the lockdown regulations so they can go back home and teach others while implementing what they learn.
He said he started selling fruits with his family at a very early age.
“I was helping out my parents who were selling fruits for my uncle, that is how I was introduced to being a hawker,” he said.
He said he loved what he was doing but because he was small in stature he could not carry fruit boxes and he had to do something else.
He said growing up he never enjoyed school because he was not good but loved using his hands.
After finishing high school, he worked for his uncle full time for six months before deciding to sell fruits for himself to provide for his family.
“I stopped working for my uncle and my father gave me his bakkie to start selling to put food on the table.” he said.
Mansfield said he began selling different types of fruits and would go around to different farms to stock up. He built strong and fruitful relationships with the farmers.
“At first I was not into farming but once I was thoroughly introduced to it, I started taking interest and did a lot of research, thanks to my curiosity,” he said.
He said he was given a chance to farm lemons by a farmer, Charles Back, who helped him with financing.
In 2014, Fruitfield Farming was born and his first consignment was 63 boxes of grapes which he transported to Epping Market, however, he changed his focus to lemons because of the demand.
He said Back paid for and provided equipment, raw material and wages for workers but did not pay him a salary.
This meant he had to do something on the side in order to have an income.
“On weekends I used to be a waiter and bartender at corporate functions, events and weddings to have an income and farm the land during the week,” he said.
He said his first big break came in 2016 which saw him exporting his produce overseas.
“My first export was 31 tons of lemons to different countries, and it was quite exciting for me I couldn’t believe what I had just achieved. In 2017, I increased by 400% to 163 tons,” he said.
He said his first milestone made his family very proud of what he had achieved; even his father was proud of him.
Mansfield said he has leased 12 hectares of land for 15 years but he hopes one day he will have land to call his own.
“I want to grow my business and to do that I need to own my own land so I can start farming other products as well, but my short-term goal is to lease bigger land to produce more,” he said.
He said he would also one day love to have his own packhouse where he would not have to go to a middle man in order to export.
Starting his own farm has given him a chance to give back to his community by providing job opportunities.
He said he has seven permanent workers and between 40 and 50 seasonal workers.
He said more land would mean more job opportunities for more people.
Mansfield said there is not that much business for him locally for now but hopes that will change.
“I mainly export internationally for now but there is a local processing company that I do business with, but I am looking to enter the local market as well,” he said.
He said he never had any formal education or training in farming but he did do a few short courses to broaden his knowledge and help build his business.
He said new farmers need to look to see where the gap is in the market, and they need to be passionate about what they do.
For what he has achieved so far he has been selected to be part of a new television show called For the Love of the Land.
The show puts black commercial farmers in the spotlight by showing off their achievements.
Weekend Argus