Free State Business 2022

OVERVIEW
produce soybean meal and soybean cake and flour from its plants,
mills and factories. Grain Field Chickens, a large abattoir in Reitz,
is one of the company’s biggest facilities in the province. The
Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), which has a 23% stake in
the project, aims to help develop the Free State as the poultry hub
of South Africa. VKB has six agro-processing companies including
VKB Flour Mills and Free State Oil and is active in auctioning, storage,
packaging and fuel sales, among other activities. VKB’s headquarters
are in Reitz in the eastern part of the province and the group is one
of the province’s largest employers.
The Imbani Homsek Group is an integrated dairy-products
producer with one of the biggest Ayrshire herds in the world. The
head office of Country Bird Holdings is in Bloemfontein: its brands
are Supreme Chicken, Nutri Feeds and Ross (breeding). Country Bird
Logistics controls 45 chilled and frozen vans.
Clover has three factories in the Free State: Bethlehem (milk
powder, whey mixtures and creamers); Frankfort (butter, the
largest such factory in the country, where ghee and roller dried
ONLINE RESOURCES
Credit: SASKO
Agricultural Research Council: www.arc.agri.za
Bothaville: www.bothaville.info
Free State Department of Agriculture and Rural Development:
www.ard.fs.gov.za
Grain SA: www.grainsa.co.za
milk powder is also made)
and in Heilbron (whey,
buttermilk, condensed milk
and packaging).
When lockdown restrictions
are not in place, Bothaville
hosts the country’s largest
agricultural festival, NAMPO
Harvest Day. In 2019, Grain
SA’s big day had 775 exhibitors
catering to 81 345 visitors.
Bothaville is on the
western edge of the Free
State and the town falls
under the North West in the
organisational chart of giant
agricultural company Senwes,
which has its headquarters
in Klerksdorp. The rest of the
Free State is divided into three
regions by Senwes, which
deals with about 20% of the
country’s oilseeds and grain
through its 68 silos.
The province supplies
significant proportions of
the nation’s sorghum (53%),
sunflowers (45%), potatoes (33%),
groundnuts (32%), dry beans
(26%), wool (24%) and almost all
of its cherries (90%). Red meat
and dairy are other important
products. Game hunting is a
significant sector, and several
large Free State farms have
been converted from stock to
game farms. Crop production
represents about two-thirds of
the province’s gross agricultural
income. The main crops are maize
and wheat. Sunflowers, sunflower
seeds, sorghum and soy beans are
other major crops. The Mangaung
Fresh Produce Market plays a
vital role in the sector, catering
as it does to householders, bulk
buyers, informal traders, agents
and farmers. ■
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FREE STATE BUSINESS 2022