SRCC FEATURE

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s u n d a y s r i v e r c i t r u s c o m p a n y

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ken nieuwenhuizen, the managing director of Sundays river Citrus

Company (SrCC), talks to south africa magazine about a host of issues including Black empowerment.

By ian armitage

I n 2009, Ken Nieuwenhuizen, the managing director of Sundays River

Citrus Company (SRCC), having spent many years travelling around the world working for drinks giant Coca-Cola, was presented with a very different and challenging opportunity - the lure of entering the field of agriculture and joining SRCC proved irresistible.

“I’m Eastern Cape born and bred,” he tells South Africa Magazine. “The challenge was one too good to rebuff.”

Formed in 1924, SRCC – today a specialist in sorting, grading, packing, palletising and dispatching fruit for export and local markets - originally operated as a citrus packing facility. Back then, the citrus industry was Government controlled and the Control Board sold its produce. This all changed in the late 90s, Nieuwenhuizen says.

“Deregulation changed everything. SRCC was formerly run as a co-operative but now operates as a company limited by guarantee and is owned by 120 members; we are essentially non-profit, with our primary objective being to maximise the returns to our producers,” he explains.

SRCC is located in the

Sundays river Citrus Company Feature

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Eastern Cape’s Sundays River Valley, an area that is rich in agriculture.

“We have three primary crops: lemons, navels and valencias,” Nieuwenhuizen says.

Having packed 20,000 cartons in its first year, the company and its grower shareholders managed to increase production to the record of 8.5 million cartons packed and exported during



the 2006 season – almost 12 percent of South Africa’s total citrus crop that year.

“Because of the variables in citrus production, on average, we pack anything between seven and 8.5 million cartons per annum,” Nieuwenhuizen says.

SRCC has a firm customer base in the UK, supplying high-profile supermarkets such as Tesco. It also has numerous customers across

We have three

primary crops

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Europe, Russia, the Middle East and the Far East. Meeting the demanding requirements of customer accreditations has become an integral part of its offering and has contributed to its success.

“Although we obviously supply our local market, because of the counter-seasonality of our product, most of our total produce is exported to countries in the northern hemisphere,” Nieuwenhuizen says.

While the company does not supply to the US market, it is active in Canada, he adds.

The picking season starts in March and runs through to October each year.

“With most customers based overseas, the big challenge we face is time,” Nieuwenhuizen says.

Indeed, delivering perishable goods over long distances and making sure they stay in excellent condition isn’t easy; the market place is demanding and competitive. “The length of our supply chain is a big challenge,” Nieuwenhuizen adds. “As soon as we’ve packed the fruit we need to place it under refrigeration; our challenge is to ensure that the produce is packed and refrigerated properly for the whole duration – our objective is not to break the cold chain!”

The company closely monitors cold chain performance based, inter alia, on the management of ‘dwell time’, he says.

“We want to minimise the time that our fruit is stored in local refrigeration before it is shipped so various storage initiatives are being explored to achieve this goal.

“Although, on the whole I think we manage the process well and I’m happy with our performance, we will always strive for continuous improvement in this vital aspect of our supply chain. ”

Experienced workers inspect all the fruit throughout the packing process, while traceability has become increasingly important. “Traceability has become a

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requirement of many of our customers and we are able to trace produce back to every orchard.

“Traceability and close relations with each farm are an integral part of our success.”

Nieuwenhuizen is also very excited by the progress of SRCC’s Black Empowerment programme.

He is committed to increasing the number of black farmers that are members of the company.

“That’s the goal,” says Nieuwenhuizen. “We are aiming to increase the number of black farmers that are members of our company through a government-assisted programme that purchases

farms, educating, training and preparing the farmers to run their operations. Our structure allows us to do this successfully, by retaining these black farmers as members of our organisation and providing them with all the support services that we offer.

“We have been extremely successful with six farms under that programme so far,” he continues. “We have reached a production level of about 13 percent of our volume coming from those farms and we would want to try and get – not that we will have a ceiling – to about 30 percent over the next few years. We are now actively looking for more farms that are up for sale.”


traceability and close relations with each farm are

an integral part of our

success

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Nieuwenhuizen says his goal is to “consistently obtain superior returns for our producers, our primary customers,” and cites farm management as one of the big challenges the future will throw up. “It is all about trying to satisfy the customer – that is no different to any other consumer related business; the challenge we and our producers will always have is to produce and supply consistently the top quality fruit that meets our customers’ increasingly high standards, while faced with ever-increasing input costs and a volatile exchange rate, on a profitable and sustainable basis.

“Another matter we wrestle with is the issue of labour versus automation,” he adds. “We have to balance our desire to offer employment opportunities with the need to be more efficient.

“We are currently very labour-intensive but you also have to look at equipment to improve the quality and efficiency of your operations.

“To stay in the race you have to follow trend, and we are always looking at how we can upgrade our operations to ensure that we remain a citrus leader, while balancing out our desire to offer local employment opportunities.

“SRCC is the benchmark for the citrus service industry in Southern Africa, and it is committed to being an innovative citrus enterprise and the first choice for citrus services and products for our customers worldwide,” he concludes.

To learn more visit www.srcc.co.za.eND

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www.srcc.co.za

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