Description: South Africa : A Smallholder’s Innovative Approach to Producing and Exporting Fruit

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South Africa : A Smallholder’s Innovative Approach to Producing and Exporting Fruit

Exporting deciduous fruit from the Western Cape Province of South Africa to markets in Europe, North America and Asia contributes significantly to the province's Gross Domestic Product. The main export producers are large-scale farmers. Even w...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors:	Hart, Tim, Billet, Aubrey, Burgess, Roberta
Language:	English
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2012
Subjects:	AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH AGRICULTURE APPLE TREES APPLES CASH CROPS CLIMATIC CONDITIONS COMMERCIAL FARMERS CROP CULTIVARS DISEASES ECONOMIES OF SCALE EMPLOYMENT ENTOMOLOGY EXTENSION SERVICES FARM FARMER FARMERS FARMING FARMS FRUIT FRUIT TREES FRUITS GRAFTING INCOME INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE INNOVATION LEGISLATION LIVELIHOODS LIVESTOCK NGOS NURSERIES OIL ONIONS ORCHARDS PEACHES PESTS PLANTING PLUMS POOR FARMERS POTATOES PRODUCE PRODUCERS SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA VEGETABLES
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2005/03/6081975/south-africa-smallholders-innovative-approach-producing-exporting-fruit http://hdl.handle.net/10986/10756

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Summary:	Exporting deciduous fruit from the Western Cape Province of South Africa to markets in Europe, North America and Asia contributes significantly to the province's Gross Domestic Product. The main export producers are large-scale farmers. Even with the change in discriminatory legislation and practices in South Africa after 1994, few smallholder farmers have penetrated this market. The few smallholders who manage to export their fruit do so through collective or individual arrangements with large-scale commercial operations. One such farmer is Aubrey Billet from Haarlem. He started exporting apples in the 1970s. Over the decades, he developed his own knowledge and innovations in both fruit production and socio-economic arrangements and was able to continue exporting most of his annual apple crop. This article discusses the lessons learned from this farmer's grafting experiments.