niche crops like blueberries or baby spinach in this area. You also cannot base your whole business on supermarkets.”
“ For us, we have to be involved in the informal trade, and in our area and market spread, the Indian trade is massive. The Indian stores in Chatsworth and Verulam are huge, so if that is your focus, you must grow crops that are eaten in large volumes, like spinach, coriander and lettuce.”
Roy farms with his wife, Sue, and sons, Miles and Justin, on 450 ha outside Mooi River. Their vegetable operation includes spinach, cauliflower, broccoli, coriander, lettuce and cabbage, but coriander has become the crop around which much of the business now revolves.
2. Row upon row of coriander grows under the protective netting.
AGRICULTURE
“ We made R300 000 from a small patch, and we thought: this is it.”