Unlocking value for smallholder raisin producers

Eksteenskuil Agricultural Co-operative has helped to empower a community and improve lives, demonstrating the true value of the co-operative concept. Filomaine Schwartz, office manager of the co-operative, spoke to Glenneis Kriel about the entity’s role in raisin production in this part of the Northern Cape.

- Glenneis Kriel

The Eksteenskuil community originated in the early 1920s, when the first families settled on about 2 000ha in the Lower Orange River region, near Keimoes in the Northern Cape.

The area, which has about 630ha under flood irrigation from the Orange River, initially splintered into about 200 small plots, but by the 1970s these had been consolidated into 147 plots, of about 3,9ha each.

Filomaine Schwartz, office manager of the Eksteenskuil Agricultural Co-operative, says government allocated the land to community members in 2003, but about 47 of the original 250 title deeds still need to be transferred.

“Without title deeds, many of our members are stuck. They don’t have money to produce anything and are unable to obtain loans without collateral. Eksteenskuil Agricultural Co-operative tries to bridge this gap by applying for grants and financing for the group as a whole.”

Thanks to this, the majority of its members are able to make a decent living. Indeed, some are doing so well that they have been able to increase their area under production by buying out plots from neighbours as well as on the open market.

“In the absence of title deeds, sales contracts are used during these transactions, stipulating that the deed should be transferred to the new owner as soon as the previous owner receives it. As a result of this, the co-operative currently has 112 members, ranging between the ages of 50 and 80, with a few young ones now also joining in,” says Schwartz.

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