New Harvest winner gets the basics right for success
Sewis van der Horst believes the quality of the fruit produced on his farm, Loufontein, is comparable to that of any commercial producer, and adds that nothing about his fruit indicates he is an emerging farmer.
Van der Horst, the son of farmworkers, grew up on a stone fruit farm in the Western Cape’s fertile Hoeko Valley.
“I always had a love for farming,” he recalls. “As a child, I’d help pick fruit during school holidays.” After matriculting in 1991, he remained on the farm as a general farmworker.
“Agriculture is my passion, but I didn’t want to stay a farmworker for the rest of my life.
