BayWa : affiliate TFC expands South African avocado business

The BayWa affiliate TFC Holland B.V. (TFC) - a Dutch supplier of exotic fruits and vegetables - and Tzaneen-based South African marketing organisation Afrupro Exporters Proprietary Limited are expanding their collaboration and forming a joint venture. The aim of the new company 'Afrupro Investments Proprietary Limited' is to grant loans to farmers to increase the cultivation volume of South African avocados. Producers will receive a low-interest financing option, for example, to invest in avocado trees and operating resources. Conversely, farmers will offer their harvest to Afrupro Exporters Pty Ltd for marketing. TFC will hold 60 per cent of the new company.

The demand for avocados continues unabated in the European Union and especially in Germany, France, Northern Europe and the UK. Other international markets, such as Asia, offer additional potential. 'As part of the BayWa specialisation strategy, the joint venture is a further building block to ensure the availability of goods - in this case, of avocados,' says Klaus Josef Lutz, Chief Executive Officer of BayWa. 'At the same time, we are strengthening our economic commitment in the growth market of Africa.'

Since 2015, BayWa has been cooperating with the multi-national group Barloworld Limited in the agricultural engineering and logistics technology sectors in South Africa and Zambia. In addition to the trading business, the Munich-based Group is gradually introducing digital farming solutions to local agriculture and, together with the farmers, is further developing water, energy and fertiliser-saving modules.

Afrupro Exporters Pty Ltd is a non-profit, avocado and litchi producer-oriented marketing company. The packaging and logistics for both regional and international markets are controlled from Tzaneen. The producers are all located locally in Tzaneen in the northeastern province of Limpopo and also in George, Western Cape, and Richmond Natal, KwaZulu-Natal.

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