The agro-processing industry in South Africa (alone) has more than 800 players, with about 98% white domination, and no more than 2% of black agro-processors in an industry worth more than R485 Billion per annum here in South Africa alone. This poses a serious challenge for emerging and aspiring black industry players (agro processors), if you take into cognisance that the white majority of agro-processors were created by the old regime, and such have the necessary resources (technical expertise, human capital and financial capabilities) to compete successfully for business opportunities of any size, as there were enablers (support mechanisms) geared towards their favour. With the advent of democracy in South Africa and the Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment Policy (BBBEE), our company has been much more biased towards creating an enabling environment for primary agricultural (especially blacks)stakeholders (co-operatives and farmers in general) to thrive, so as to ensure that we sustain a solid value chain in terms of unlocking market offtakes for them, whilst also ensuring consistent supply of raw materials for our agro processing (value add) operations, so as to establish and also sustain diverse markets demand of our products. The agro processing industry presents opportunities to partner and supply diverse markets ranging from:
