Capespan, South Africa's largest fruit exporter and IFC’s partner in the Thandi Land Reform Program, was recently selected as Exporter of the Year by Cape Town's Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The award highlights the program’s progress improving the livelihoods of black South African farm workers and its important role in putting in place a sustainable model for land transformation in the country.
Launched in February 2007, the IFC Thandi Land Reform Program is a strategic partnership between IFC, the Capespan Group, and the Capespan Foundation. It aims to helping black farmers and farm workers own a stake in fruit farms on which they work, thereby improving their livelihoods and promoting more equitable land ownership in South Africa. The program also provides training and mentorship programs to create wealth and increase capacity and small- and medium-sized farms.
CORRECTING PAST POLICIES
Equitable distribution of land ownership is a key objective in South Africa as the government aims to correct the racially-based land ownership policies of the past. Through redistribution policies, the government aims to provide the disadvantaged and the poor with access to land for residential and productive purposes and create a system of sustainable land use.
Working together with Capespan, the IFC Thandi Land Reform program helps black farm workers develop business plans to buy a stake in farms and assists them as they apply for financing. Once farm workers own a stake of farms, the program helps provide technical farming skills in such areas as fertilizing and irrigation and business skills so that farmers can more effectively market fruit and produce.
There are also training and mentorship programs to help raise awareness of HIV/AIDS, improve opportunities for women, heighten environmentally-friendly practices, and raise food safety and compliance standards.
INCREASING OWNERSHIP
The program so far has 20 active ongoing projects and has provided training for almost 400 farmers and farm workers. The goal is to increase black ownership in at least 30 fruit farms over 3 years.
“The IFC Thandi Land Reform Program is making important gains in supporting more equitable land distribution in South Africa,” says Mary-Jean Ndlovu, Principal Operations Officer and head of the Corporate Advice Business Line of IFC PEP Africa. “The success of the program demonstrates how IFC is making a difference in alleviating poverty from the ground up by empowering South Africa’s black farmers.”
Capespan provides technical advice to farms participating in the program and uses its global network to market overseas the fruit that are grown on participating farms. In accepting the Exporter of the Year award, Capespan CEO Neil Oosthuizen acknowledged the partnership with IFC as a key component that strengthened the company’s application.
For more information contact:
Houtan Bassiri
Communications Officer
Johannesburg, South Africa
Tel: +27 11 731 3179
Email: hbassiri@ifc.org
