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HACCP Acredited
Being the son of a farmer and farming himself, Gerrit Fourie, the founder member of South African peanut Marketing (PTY) Ltd, has always had the interest of farmers at heart.
Since entering the peanut industry in 1981, Gerrit’s convictions has always been that our farmers are our most important asset.
Because privately owned peanut processing plants was not allowed in Apartheid South Africa, Gerrit in 1986 built a peanut processing plant in Marulani in the Northern Province (Venda, being independant from South Africa). Thereby being the 1st privately owned peanut processing plant in Southern Africa. However, this also had its challenges because Gerrit was not allowed to purchase peanuts within the South African borders. This later resulted in Gerrit being taken to court.
Gerrit sold the factory in 1990 and started farming with peanuts at Krokodilkop in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa until 1995.
After our constitutional changes in 1995, Gerrit built a mobile peanut shelling, sorting and grading facility. This enabled Gerrit to process the raw material (in-shell) on the South african farms and thereafter market it on behalf of the farmers. Through this added value, the farmers received better financial rewards for their peanuts.
In 1996 SA Groundnut Marketing (Pty) Ltd was registered as a private company in terms of the South African Companies act.
From 1998 to 2002 SAGM was contracted by Star Foods an affiliate of South African dried fruit(SAD) to process their peanuts.
Gerrit’s dream has always been to enter into some form of partnership agreement with his South African peanut farmers.
Gerrit has always had a clear vision what it would entail to be a successful
processing company, namely.
• Jointly owned by farmers
• Bulk harvesting, bulk intake, bulk drying, bulk storage and bulk processing of peanuts
In 2002 Gerrit purchased the property in Hoopstad, with the idea to build a peanut processing plant on the property.
True to his conviction and vision, he arranged a farmers meeting inviting farmers from the Free State region of South Africa to attend the meeting.
He explained to the farmers his vision, inviting them to become co-owners of the peanut processing plant he was planning to build in Hoopstad.
At this meeting Gerrit had on hand the building plans of the proposed processing plant, which entailed the proposed bulk intake, drying and storage facilities. Gerrit’s lawyer and auditor were present to explain the formation of the proposed company, and presented a proposed business plan.
After debating Gerrit’s proposal with input from his auditor and lawyer the peanut farmers decided not to invest in the processing plant.
Due to the peanut farmers non interest, Gerrit alone could not raise the capital to finance a processing plant that could accommodate the bulk intake, bulk drying and bulk storage vision.
However, he pursued his dream and successfully applied for a loan from the Industrial Development Corporation. In February 2004 he started building the peanut processing plant in Hoopstad South Africa which became operational in August 2004.
SA Groundnut Marketing has a great relationship with its peanut farmers.
In 2004, during the harvesting period, SAGM was building its plant and had no finances in place to purchase any peanuts, however Gerrit’s excellent relationship with his farmers had seen that 11 farmers delivered in total 1,000 metric tons of peanuts to SAGM, not expecting any payments until the factory was operational.
May 2009, SAGM called a meeting with its farmers, informing them that due to the international financial meltdown, SAGM will not be able to survive on the minimum contracted prices offered to peanut farmers during the planting season in 2008. The farmers voted in favour of reducing the purchasing price.
2004/2005 SEASON:
SAGM succeeded in procuring 3,475 mt of peanuts.
2005/2006 SEASON:
SAGM succeeded in procuring 6,344 mt of peanuts.
2006/2007 SEASON
SAGM succeeded in procuring 6,049 mt of peanuts.
2007/2008 SEASON
SAGM succeeded in procuring 10,571 mt of peanuts.
2008/2009 SEASON
SAGM succeeded in procuring 8,106 mt of peanuts.
2009/2010 SEASON
SAGM would possibly procure 7,000 mt of peanuts.
