The Importance Of Timing To Strawberry Production

Professional Horticultural Consulting, a nursery-turned-strawberry producer, has become one of South Africa’s leading strawberry exporters, thanks in part to its expertise at analysing plant and soil nutritional requirements. Dr. Gavin Linsley-Noakes spoke to Glenneis Kriel about the business.

- Glenneis Kriel

Professional Horticultural Consulting (PHC) near George in the Western Cape ventured into commercial strawberry production in 2014, after receiving complaints about the price and quality of strawberry plant material.

“Growers were saying that production wasn’t economically viable, so being a nursery that offers consultancy services, we decided to see for ourselves,” says Dr. Gavin Linsley-Noakes, who founded PHC in 2004.

Linsley-Noakes farms alongside Francois Roets, the owner of the nearby Groeneweide Farm.

The experiment has been so successful that production has expanded to two other farms, Brandwag Farm near Mossel Bay, and Waboomskraal, between Oudtshoorn and George, bringing their total area under strawberries to 36ha.

In the process, the company has become one of the largest strawberry exporters in South Africa, with about a quarter of its annual 1 000t of production airfreighted to countries in the Middle and Far East, Indian Ocean islands and Africa.

“The only thing I regret about our business is that we didn’t venture into commercial strawberry production earlier,” says Linsley-Noakes.

MOTIVATED EMPLOYEES

Good labour practice is one of the pillars of PHC’s success.

“Strawberry production is extremely labour- and time-sensitive, so a strawberry business is really only as good as its employees,” says LinsleyNoakes. “Fruit has to be picked and shipped at the right time, and should be chilled as soon as possible, with every hour in delay resulting in up to a day’s loss in shelf life.”