AGRICULTURAL
Niche market
Dip your foot,
in coffee maybe?
Continuing with our niche farming series, this edition of Scenario explores coffee farming
as a possible market for South African farmers.
By Kefiloe Manthata
C
offee culture is on the rise in
South Africa and with this,
coffee shops are sprouting
up all over the place. Now
is quite possibly the best time for South
African farmers to take advantage of the
growing trend and tap into this seldomly
explored market. Currently, only a handful
of farmers produce coffee locally. Nation
in Conversation recently paid a visit to
one such farmer, Tim Buckland, owner
of Sabie Valley Coffee in White River,
Mpumalanga. For Buckland, the decision
to venture into coffee was an instinctive
one. “My interest in coffee was born out of
me living on a coffee farm in the eastern
highlands of Zimbabwe in the seventies.
When I decided to get out of the rat race
and pursue something different, coffee
seemed like the obvious choice for me.”
Coffee production in South Africa has
a bit of a complex history. In the past, the
labour intensive industry did not fare well
in the country due to high labour costs
and plunging international prices. The
recent upsurge in coffee culture, however,
creates a demand for premium coffee
beans that opens up a gap in the market
and makes it it worthwhile for farmers to
explore the industry again. Despite the
increase in demand, South Africa does
not produce enough coffee yet to satisfy
the local market.
Tim and Kim Buckland, the owners of Sabie Valley
Coffee, are involved in the day to running of the coffee
plantation in White River, Mpumalanga.
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SENWES SCENARIO | WINTER 2018
Roasting to order.
There are two types of coffee plants,
Coffea Arabica and Coffea Robusta.
Arabica makes a flavourful, full-bodied
coffee that is sharp in taste with a rather
low caffeine content, while Robusta has
a much higher caffeine content, and is
stronger in character. The coffee plant is
an evergreen shrub that produces tropical
fruit (berries). The fruit is the most essen-
tial part of the plant because embedded
inside the fruit, are two seeds which will
later be dried and ground to produce the
much loved beverage. Because there
are no machines that can pick the coffee
berries effectively, coffee farming requires
a relatively large labour force and is very
time consuming.
Coffee farming is perfect for South
African climate conditions as the crop
can survive very well in moderate to high
temperatures. It is. however, very sensitive
to water shortages so irrigation would be
vital in cases of rainfall shortages. Although
the plant has been proven to grow well in
many different types of soil, sandy loam is
the most ideal. Coffee also has very high
nutrient demands and a thorough soil anal-
ysis (p 14) is needed before planting can
begin.
There is also room in the coffee value
chain for those who do not have the
manpower or resources to farm coffee.
Along with bean farming, the processing
of coffee beans, including roasting and
grinding as well as the manufacturing of
instant coffee, are other areas that can be
explored.
To watch the full episode, go
to http://fwd2.co/coffee.