The community around Pan African Resources’ Barberton Mines has been given a new economic lease on life following a partnership between the mining company and Primocane Capital, which implements agricultural farming projects in sub-Saharan Africa.
While the highly capital intensive blueberry farm project has been designed to create economic opportunities for the Barberton community beyond the life of the mine, Primocane Capital’s core focus as a private equity firm is to invest in and develop niche agriculture environments that support sustainability, while offering favourable returns for investors and the communities where it operates.
“We believe that, as an asset class, the agricultural sector can stimulate exponential growth in South Africa’s economy, and that it is vital to the country’s development in the coming years,” says Primocane co-founder, Derek Stanford.
“This growth has massive potential to unlock foreign currency through exports and create jobs in rural areas where they are massively needed, and in mining communities where opportunities for people not involved in the mine, are also sorely in demand.”
The investment team, with its combined backgrounds in corporate finance and large-scale agriculture, identified blueberries as the ideal crop for this project due to the ideal climate and as there is significant demand for the fruit abroad, particularly in Europe, the Middle East, and Far East. Advances in finetuning cultivars, along with sophisticated refrigerated shipping, mean that the berries stay fresh, with no deterioration in flavour, for up to eight weeks in transit.
Blueberry plants also grow particularly well in bags containing a coir medium, which made them an ideal choice for the varying landscape around Barberton Mines, while the mine supplies clean water as part of its water treatment protocols.
Production is carefully planned and fully controlled and monitored, using state of the art technology, with the first 95,000 blueberry bushes expected to yield up to three kilograms of berries each in 2021, and up to four kilograms each in following years.
Establishing the first phase of the project has already created 80 jobs, while seasonal berry-picking work opportunities will number 400 in the first season, and at least 1,000 in coming years, as the project expands.
While Primocane has established several other agriculture investment projects, this partnership with Pan African Resources is its first in collaboration with a mine.
“Partnering with mines makes so much sense on so many levels,” Stanford says. “Communities around mines are extensive, but the mine can’t employ everyone. Each mine has to prove its commitment to preserving the environment, and to ensuring the sustainability of mining communities to retain their mining rights – but they’re experts in mining, and not in other industries, especially farming.”
“Our partnership with Primocane is already uplifting the community and small businesses around Barberton Mines, and we’re looking forward to working with them in nurturing it into a centre of excellence in blueberry farming,” says Hethen Hira, head of investor relations at Pan African Resources. “We have valued their truly collaborative approach in the project, particularly their willingness to also invest capital into the farm – it’s demonstrative of their confidence in the project too.”
