ZZ2 2020

SPEARHEADING INNOVATION IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN AGRICULTURE SECTOR

ZZ2

Growing for the Future ZZ2’s farming roots date back to the 19th century, the van Zyl family continuing to honour its legacy while looking ahead to the future of an ever-changing agricultural sector Writer: Sean Galea-Pace | Project Manager: Donovan Smith 2 | Africa Outlook issue 87

Agriculture in South Africa, although incredibly challenging, is a very exciting space to be working in.�

Today, the agricultural sector in South Africa is regarded as one of relatively few industries within the country that can showcase real growth and potential for job creation.

AGRICULTURE

During the past two decades, the industry has transitioned away from mass large-scale intensive farming and the production of low-value food crops like wheat and milk to highvalue export products that include deciduous fruit, citrus and game.

The opening statement comes from Tommie van Zyl, CEO of South African

farming enterprise and fresh produce company ZZ2.

“Due to the unique diversity of our climate, we can grow many different crops,” he continues. “Despite South Africa being a water scarce country, we’re now at the forefront worldwide in managing our water resources.

By removing invader plant species,

careful planning of our resources and by employing the best technologies we have managed to overcome many of the water challenges facing us.”

And agriculture in the country is only expected to grow. The sector is anticipated to register a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 4.5 percent during the forecast period of Africa Outlook issue 87 | 3

ZZ2

Haifa Group

ZZ2 IN FOCUS

What makes ZZ2 different?

which must be innovatively created, conceived, invented and willed.)

VALUE PROPOSITION: ZZ2 has become an iconic brand in South Africa that people can associate with and have made an emotional connection with. The brand has become associated with quality, longshelf life and value for money.

VALUE CREATION WITH INTEGRATED OPTIMISED CONVERTERS IN THE VALUE CHAIN: ZZ2 has chosen not to go the vertically integrated route but has preferred to specialise in those functions it has control over. Production, packing and marketing are what it classifies as integrated converters.

Tommie van Zyl, CEO According to van Zyl, ZZ2 carries many unique characteristics which stand the firm apart: VALUES: Prudentia (Prudence) – consideration, wisdom and far-sightedness in dealing with its environment and stakeholders; Justitia (Justice) – honesty, impartiality, fairness, justness and integrity in its decision-making process; Fortitudo (Fortitude) – perseverance, fearlessness, determination, persistence and endurance in carrying out its duties; Temperantia (Moderation) – modesty, restraint, selflessness and tolerance as part of ZZ2’s daily drive.

AN OPEN SYSTEMS PHILOSOPHY: Other-directedness (Personalisation – the other is a precondition of the entity’s existence); Outer directedness (Decentralisation and exteriorisation); Horizontality (Democratisation and creation of opportunities); Mutability (The process of becoming: existence precedes essence); Discontinuity (Revitalisation: nonlinear, discontinuous processes.

Change in inevitable and must be managed); Irreversibility (The arrow of time is directed towards the future

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NATUURBOERDERY®: Farming with awareness and sensitivity towards the ever changing natural and human environment and adapting to this change with best efficiency in order to stay relevant and to prosper.

Stakeholder relations: ZZ2 has always believed in building long-term relationships with all its stakeholders.

The sum of the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

DILIGENCE AND CONCENTRATED ATTENTION: The above two factors go hand in hand. ZZ2 has created a number of specialist support divisions which then allows the grower to put all their energy and attention into maximising their crop, and not to have to worry about all the ancillary farming functions. The specialist support services take care of these functions.

In this way ZZ2 has created highly specialised divisions that can render a world class service to its industry colleagues.

ECONOMIES OF SCALE: Due to the size of ZZ2’s tomato plantings, a huge infrastructure has been created to support this division. This has enabled newer products like blueberries, dates cherries and almonds to rapidly expand as the economies of scale in terms of the support services were already in place.

By combining vision and leadership, technology and innovation, Haifa Group has become the quintessential world expert in specialty fertilisers, delivering exceptional products.

A solid, stable company with a massive global presence Haifa Group delivers world class operation standards.

Passionately focused on farmers and their well-being, Haifa Group is committed to employees, customers, community and environment. With a pioneering attitude of creating inspirational solutions for a changing world, Haifa Group looks toward a future that embraces improving plant nutrition, efficiency, profit, convenience and environment.

www.haifa-group.com

2020-2025 – this follows a positive 2019 during which the price received by farmers rose by 4.3 percent alongside a five percent increase in the amount spent on agricultural inputs.

Van Zyl also recognises the plethora of workers at its disposal. “The pool of young, skilled and highly qualified employees available to us can only bode well for the future,” he says.

“We are already designing and building highly complex pack-houses using our own team of young skilled engineers. The diversity of cultures within South Africa also means that we can call on the talents and creativity of many different people within the country. We also have the ability (and have done so) to bring in some highly skilled individuals from the arms and mining industries to assist us in employing the best technology as these industries scale down their operations in South Africa.”

Indeed, van Zyl has a legacy of his own to uphold.

AGRICULTURE

Ask for The Best For years Haifa Group has been supporting ZZ2 with high quality, super-efficient fertilisers.

Haifa Group is proud to be associated with low impact, high purity plant nutrients that ensure healthy soils and plants. We believe that ZZ2 will grow from strength to strength for many years to come.

Haifa South Africa P.O.Box 1409, Brackenfell, 7561, South Africa Tel: 021 982 0309 | Fax: 021 981 7637 E-mail: Dawie.Fourie@haifa-group.com www.haifa-group.com

The family began their farming journey over 100 years ago. Today, van Zyl explains that the need for independence and a passion for farming has always been the lifeblood of his family for generations.

PROJECT SNAPSHOT

POME FRUIT ZZ2 has a partnership with VitroPlant South Africa, a plant biotechnology company situated in Somerset West, Cape Town, South Africa. “They operate a large modern ‘In Vitro’ plant tissue culture laboratory designed, custom built and equipped for large scale commercial tissue culture propagation,” explains van Zyl. “This partnership is going to enable us to bring new pome fruit cultivars to market far more quickly.”

“Willem van Zyl, our ancestor from the Netherlands, worked as a fresh produce farmer for the Dutch East Indian Company in the Cape of Good Hope,” he explains. “He later bought a farm in Franschhoek where he farmed with fresh produce, wine and livestock. His descendants left the Cape during the 1830s and gradually moved north. Eventually, they settled in the

region east of Polokwane in 1880.

“My father formed the present company in 1966. Tenacity, an eye for a business opportunity, a knack for communicating with employees in their own language and an unwavering self-belief stood him in good stead over the years. I grew up on the farm and it was always my dream to continue to grow the legacy my father had left us.”

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ZZ2

PROJECT SNAPSHOT

CUTTING PESTICIDES With its Natuurboerdery approach to farming in mind, ZZ2 is collaborating with BioBee in order to farm in harmony with nature. BioBee’s biological control solutions assist South African farmers in growing quality fruits, vegetables and flowers that are free of chemical residues.

BioBee’s products, which reduce the use of pesticides for both conventional and bio-organic agriculture, are an indispensable element of a successful Integrated Pest Management program (IPM).

“This partnership helps us to live out our dream of using less chemicals and therefore providing our customers with safe, healthy and nutritious fruits and vegetables,” comments van Zyl.

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ZZ2 farms are primarily in the Limpopo Province where their sought-after tomatoes and avocados are cultivated. However, the firm also operates in the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Gauteng, North-West Province, Mpumalanga and across the border in Namibia.

The enterprise also grows mangoes, onions, dates, cherries, apples, pears, stone fruit, almonds and blueberries.

The ZZ2 brand is well-recognised and possesses a proud history backed by a great customer value offering and superior economic value for all its stakeholders.

As a result of the South African economy being stagnant over the past few years, the enterprise decided to concentrate on superfoods that could be exported, a move which Van Zyl believes was essential.

“Our tomatoes and onions that are only destined for the local market were not showing any growth,” he explains. “Therefore, we decided to leave the hectares of the tomatoes and onions unchanged but to concentrate on improving the productivity of these crops.”

ZZ2’s portfolio has also been extended to include dates, cherries, blueberries and almonds. However, it is the avocado market that particularly

PROJECT SNAPSHOT

AVOCADO EXPANSION ZZ2 has teamed with Criterion Africa Partners (CAP) who possess access to large tracts of land in numerous parts of South Africa that are suitable to plant avocados. “CAP will be supplying the land while ZZ2 will supply the trees and intellectual property to grow avocados,” explains van Zyl. “The first 200 hectares of avocados have already been planted and we are in the planning stage to plant a further 500 hectares in the next year or two.

This joint venture, together with our nursery, is going to give us the ability to upscale our avocado plantings.”

AGRICULTURE

piques van Zyl’s interest.

“We’ve been farming with avocados since the early eighties, but we’ve always been hampered by the lack of planting material,” he explains. “We established our own avocado nursery a number of years ago and this has now enabled us to begin an expansive growth strategy.

“We are very positive regarding our avocados as we see the per capita consumption of avocados increasing on a yearly basis worldwide. Currently, South Africa only has access to Europe for its avocados. As South Africa is ideally placed to serve the east and far eastern markets, ZZ2 will be in a very good position once market access is gained to serve these markets.”

Another enabler for the future is technology.

With industries the world over beginning to digitise at scale, farming is no different, and van Zyl believes that embracing new technology is fundamental and will continue to have a growing impact.

“It is vitally important to embrace digital farming techniques and digitisation strategies in the agricultural sector,” he adds.

“Agricultural activities will continue to become more intense, detailed and have a greater emphasis on

PROJECT SNAPSHOT

ALMONDS AND CHERRIES ZZ2 has partnered with US-based firm Zaiger Genetics.

The organisation has licensed ZZ2 to sell the rights to the Independence Almond growing material in South Africa. Similarly, Zaiger Genetics has also allowed ZZ2 the rights to its low chill cherry varieties growing material in the north of the country.

ZZ2 has planted its own almonds and cherries and has licenced many farmers to also grow these crops. Due to the almonds requiring a lot of mechanisation, the licenced farmers together with ZZ2 will purchase the necessary machinery for harvesting and they will also invest in the necessary packing facilities. Today, South Africa currently only produces 10 percent of its almond needs, the rest being imported. Therefore, there are both local and export opportunities for almonds.

cost-savings. This will also lead to greater emphasis on effective resource utilisation and environmentally friendly farming practices as well as more effective packing facilities and increasingly optimised logistics flows.”

Looking ahead, van Zyl harbours ambitions of increasing the number of crops exported but stresses the importance of improving its current offering before extending its portfolio.

“We aim to become the preeminent supplier of avocados out of South Africa utilising the very early window we have to get into the market before Peru,” he says, bringing the conversation to a conclusion.

“We will continue to work with our government to get access to more markets especially in the East and Far East. We will probably not diversify too much further but rather concentrate on growing and improving on the productivity of the crops we currently have.”

ZZ2 Tel: +27 15 395 2040 info@zz2.co.za www.zz2.co.za

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ZZ2 Farm Boekenhoutbult, Jachtpad Road, Mooketsi, Limpopo, 0825, South Africa Tel: +27 15 395 2040 info@zz2.co.za www.zz2.co.za PRODUCED BY AFRICA OUTLOOK MAGAZINE