Farmers to reap rewards of SA-China relations

A Limpopo macadamia nuts farmer’s mission to uplift his emerging colleagues is about to pay off.

The next harvest season will see Gene Likhanya and about 30 other farmers export their nuts to China, one of South Africa’s leading trading partners.

President Cyril Ramaphosa recently embarked on a State Visit to the Asian global economic powerhouse in an effort to entrench the strong diplomatic relations between the two countries. It follows China President Xi Jinping’s 4th State Visit to South Africa on the margins of the BRICS Summit in 2023.

During the visit, South Africa placed a strong emphasis on promoting existing economic ties to strengthen the economy. China is South Africa’s largest trading partner.  In 2023, bilateral trade stood at 34 billion US dollars, with exports totalling 12 billion US dollars and imports at 22 billion US dollars.

Likhanya from Vhembe district in Limpopo who owns Madimbo Macs will be testament to this.

He started his farming journey on a 2.5 hectare (ha) plot in Tshakhuma in 2005 after being inspired by an uncle who had embarked on similar journey.

“I had saved up a bit of money and managed to purchase a 2.5 ha farm.  It was an industry back then that not many black people were involved in. Not many of us even knew about macadamia at that time, it was a road less taken,” he told Vuk’uzenzele.

Over the last 19 years, the operation expanded to over 600 ha of macadamia, banana, honey, and avocado.

During the journey, the former United Nations peacekeeper said he had always had a dream to develop a processing marketing hub that is tailormade for the emerging black farmers.

Gene explained that the macadamia market is not structured for small farmers.

“Emerging macadamia farmers are unable to walk into facilities with half a bakkie [of nuts],” he said.

Adding that it was rare for the market to purchase macadamia nuts packaged and transported in this fashion especially since the industry does not allow for small volumes.

To counter this, Madimbo Macs, which employs over 50 people – developed a facility on one of its farms to close perceptions and barriers in the industry.

As a result, the hub will in the next harvest season export up to 1000 tonnes of macadamia to the Chinese market.

"We will be able to export all our nut-in-shell (produce), of which 99% is black-farmer produced."

About 30 emerging macadamia farmers with a capacity to produce between five and 50 tonnes are expected to benefit from the export to China.

“We are limited to that. There is more support that we need to scale… we need a bigger facility to support the people,” he said.

Rough and bumpy

Reflecting on his journey, he said while it had its rewards, he said it had been “rough” and “bumpy.”

“Initially, you’re coming into a business where you have no experience in. It’s a business that is extremely dominated by our [white] brothers. You don’t have any relationships as to where to start… Access was extremely difficult,” he said.

This, he added, was before factoring the needs of farming machinery, adding that he had to rely on basic pick and shovel as a start to clear the land.

“That was all the resources we had. We had no water rights but we had rain. It was a tough journey compared to where we are now.”

The Chinese off-take took about 17 years to achieve.

“Next year will be our first time exporting. We have built the facility; we have established a market for us to start exporting directly from our own packhouse or facility. It’s an intriguing conversation because it is a business that you cannot establish overnight, it takes an extremely long time to get to the point where you are ready to export,” he concluded.