Ceres farmer wins Freshmark Supplier of the Year

Recipients of the Agricultural Writers South Africa, Western Cape Farmer of the Year Award 2013: AJ Griesel (Commercial Manager); Rossouw Cillie (Owner and MD); and Innis Nagel (Financial Director) of Laastedrif Farming (Pty) Ltd. Photo: Courtesy of the Agricultural Writers SA, Western Cape.

Following the Agricultural Writers of South Africa's Farmer of the Year in 2013, Cillié was recently awarded the Freshmark Supplier of the Year prize for 2014.

Laastedrif Farming started supplying fresh fruit and vegetables to Freshmark, the fruit and vegetable procurement and distribution arm for Shoprite Checkers (Pty) Ltd, in 2007.

"Cillié focuses on supplying consistently good quality produce, year round, at competitive prices," said Freshmark's GM of Procurement, Pieter van Zyl.

Service delivery and complying with the ever-changing retail demands were some of the main priorities for Laastedrif Farming, he said.

Van Zyl also praised Laastedrif Farming for their commitment to farms labour upliftment and the well-being of the business' work force and their families.

"We are very pleased to have received this accolade and consider it an exceptional achievement for our farming business," said Cillié.

"When you receive this type of recognition it means that you are doing something right and for me and my staff this is very encouraging," he said.

Freshmark provided its suppliers with a lot of support and there was a very good working relationship between them and Freshmark, Cillié added.

Laastedrif Farming, with its headquarters in Ceres, runs an extensive vegetable production business, supplying Freshmark and other top retailers in South Africa with fresh and packaged vegetables.

First-use water

A unique aspect of vegetable production at Laastedrif Farming was the abundant access they had to clean water, with at least 80% of their crops grown with first-use water, Cillié said.

The six farms that comprise Laastedrif Farming are situated within a 100 km radius of each other from Gouda and the slopes of the Matroosberg Mountain to the plains of the Little Karoo.

According to Cillié the farms are situated on varying altitudes and experienced different climatic conditions, enabling them to produce quality fruit and vegetables all year round.

They also produce premium varieties of apples, pears, peaches, apricots and plums for the local and export markets.

Cillié is a company director and grower for Tru-Cape Fruit Marketing and all the apples and pears produced by Laastedrif Farming is marketed by Tru-Cape.

Tru-Cape Fruit Marketing Managing Director Roelf Pienaar said to have a grower of Cillié's caliber on the board of Tru-Cape was invaluable for the cutting-edge business insight and latest farming practices knowledge that he generously shared. "Tru-Cape couldn't be prouder of our association with Rossouw Cillié and his family yet this award, from one of our most important customers, has all of us at Tru-Cape basking in his success."