Features

Elite Crop Seeks To Provide Quality Food And Employment To South Africans

Elite Crop Seeks To Provided Quality Food And Employment To South Africans. Elite Crop (Pty) Ltd is a South African company which is a family owned entity that was established by Ntando Thabethe in 2018, the company is a supplier of processed foods within the fruit and vegetable value chain. It is currently based in KZN in Pinetown.

Elite Crop is a successful hydroponic tunnel farm which produces a variety of fruits and vegetables, including dried herbs and fresh, frozen and processed vegetables and fruits. Elite Crop was selected to be trademarked at a patent and trademark workshop that was held at ADA. ADA also assisted with marking the brand, testing the processed products and finding a market to sell them to. An eight ton refrigerator truck was donated from ADA to Elite Crop. The truck would allow the company to deliver the produce to customers at good quality.

W24’s Athabile Mrasi quoted Thabethe, saying: “My husband gave me money to do my hair, but I decided not to go to the salon. Instead, I bought seeds worth R389 with it, and when I got home, my husband was surprised by my decision.” According to Briefly, At first Thabethe wanted to feed only her family and Thabethe decided to plant broccoli, cauliflower, peppers and spinach. However, she ended up having more vegetables than what her family needed and decided to sell some of them to other members in the community. Thabethe continued to enjoy the success of her garden and not only became a superstar in her community but also attracted the attention of a Pick ‘n Pay store near her house.

Thabethe then approached the local municipality to get the go-ahead on building a tunnel in her backyard. Since then, business has been booming. Thabethe started her own company, Elite Crop, and in just a couple of years she has been supplying around eight tons of frozen vegetables monthly to the Durban-based stores.

Elite Crop also landed a deal in Dubai and Thabethe now exports dried production, including herbs and tomato powder, to her partner there. The KwaZulu-Natal-based entrepreneur has managed to create employment. Thabethe has reportedly employed 40 people at Elite Crop.

By Thomas Chiothamisi

Show More

Related Articles

Back to top button