FAST FACTS
Trees are manipulated to grow big and strong during the first four years after planting.
Renewal cuttings are used during pruning to ensure most of the fruit are produced by two-year-old wood.
Orchards are irrigated when needed to prevent water stress.
Over the past five years, GA Erasmus and Seuns Boerdery in Villiersdorp, in the Western Cape Overberg, has won the Two-a-Day award for the highest income per hectare with pears four times. This year it was with an average income of R363 993/ ha. The company also won the Tru-Cape award for the highest income per bearing hectare.
When you ask owner George Erasmus to what he ascribes his success with pears, he wholeheartedly attributes it to the inputs and support of his production adviser, Nico Ferreira, of Two-a-Day's Fruitmax Agri.
“I merely
