Powering up SA's pomegranate industry

Gerhard Meyer has achieved export success with his top-quality pomegranates. Now he and a group of other Klein Karoo farmers have established a brand specifically for pomegranates grown in this area, promising substantial employment and attracting government support. He spoke to Glenneis Kriel about the project.

- Glenneis Kriel

 FAST FACTS

Producer Gerhard Meyer says that pomegranate trees make an excellent investment, producing the highest yield per litre of water in his area of the Klein Karoo.

The crop, he adds, can transform the region by creating many new direct and indirect jobs.

The establishment costs of pomegranate trees are relatively low, and break-even is reached by year four or five.

In March 2021, Farmer's Weekly reported on how Gerhard Meyer transformed the farm he inherited near Oudtshoorn in 2008 by building a dam to store his water allocation. He also installed a desalination plant to make the water more suitable for fruit production and converted 15ha of lucerne under flood irrigation to 40ha of pomegranate under drip irrigation.

In addition, he changed the farm's name from Langverwacht to Celebratio, in remembrance of the happy times he spent there as a child and in honour of his father, grandfather and other relatives who managed to keep the farm in the family despite severe hardships.

Since then, he has established an independent pomegranate brand that will enable other farmers to cash in on production of this crop in the Klein Karoo.

"Pomegranates present the best return on investment in terms of land and water usage of all crops in this part of the Klein Karoo. The yield per litre of water is second to none," says Meyer.

He adds that the crop also has excellent job creation potential, with 1,5 jobs being created for every hectare planted.

"Establishing a pomegranate industry here will breathe new life into the job market. The Oudtshoorn area is currently sitting with an unemployment rate of 80%. Many jobs were lost when local farmers downscaled because of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, avian influenza, and the onset of the drought about seven years ago.