Avoiding Slippery Mistakes With Bananas

The humble banana is usually taken for granted by consumers, but growing this popular fruit can be tricky, expensive and involve considerable risk. Having top-performing banana plantations starts with the proper establishment of the crop. Brothers Riaan and WJ Heystek shared their experiences of setting up their banana enterprise with Lloyd Phillips.

- Lloyd Phillips

1: The people behind Heystek Farm Produce and its relatively new banana farming enterprise are (left to right) Riaan Heystek, his wife Lizelle, and his brother WJ. LLOYD PHILLIPS

A visit to the operational nerve centre of Heystek Farming, situated in the Pongola area of northern KwaZulu-Natal, reveals a highly organised and diversified farming operation that is clearly the pride of brothers Riaan and WJ Heystek. There are fields of irrigated sugar cane and green peppers, citrus orchards, banana plantations and cucumber tunnels.

2: Left: a sucker that has been selected to be the next mature banana plant. Middle: a mature banana plant that is yet to produce fruit. Right: the cut stem of a harvested banana plant that initially provided valuable nutrients to the middle plant while young.

3: The flower petals and leaves of the mature banana plant partially protect the fruit from sunburn.

Their father, Willie, established Heystek Farming, but today focuses on managing the farm’s finances, while Riaan and WJ run the operation. In addition, the pair manage a separate entity, Heystek Farm Produce (HFP), which they established in 2013 to farm mainly jam tomatoes.

Bananas, which the brothers first planted in December 2019, are HFP’s latest enterprise.

“We chose bananas because we know they grow well in Zululand’s subtropical climate,” explains Riaan. “They’re also very popular among fresh-produce hawkers. For years, we’ve been supplying our other fresh produce to local informal traders. We have a good business relationship with them, and they told us they’d be willing to buy our bananas.”