Tulbagh Cannery Closure Puts 200 Fruit Producers and Thousands of Jobs at Risk
Tulbagh Cannery Closure Puts 200 Fruit Producers and Thousands of Jobs at Risk. AgriSA, Agri Western Cape and the Canning Fruit Producers Association (CFPA) are calling for urgent engagement with Premier Group following its announced intention to cease soft-fruit canning operations at its Tulbagh facility ahead of the 2026/27 harvest.
The organisations are urging Premier to honour existing commitments to producers and avoid irreversible decisions that could affect the future of the facility and the wider fruit industry.
The Tulbagh cannery processes approximately 55,000 to 60,000 tonnes of fruit each year and purchases around R300 million worth of produce from farmers annually. More than 200 producers and approximately 2,000 hectares of orchards are connected to the facility, along with thousands of permanent and seasonal jobs across the broader value chain.
The organisations said the potential closure presents particular challenges for fruit producers because orchards require long-term investment. Orchards are typically established over 20 to 30 years, while production decisions are made well ahead of harvest periods.
They said producers cannot easily redirect substantial quantities of highly perishable fruit only months before harvesting without potentially facing serious financial consequences.
AgriSA, Agri Western Cape and the CFPA are therefore calling for all reasonable alternatives to be considered before productive capacity that has developed over decades is lost.
AgriSA chief executive officer Johann Kotzé said the priority should be bringing the relevant parties together while there is still an opportunity to protect the region’s productive capacity.
Jannie Strydom, chief executive officer of Agri Western Cape, said the issue extended beyond the cannery itself.
“This is not simply about one factory. It concerns farmers who have invested over decades, workers and communities whose livelihoods depend on this value chain, and productive agricultural capacity that cannot easily be recreated once it has been lost,” Strydom said.
The organisations acknowledged that businesses in South Africa’s agricultural and food-processing sectors are operating under difficult market conditions. However, they said the timing and scale of the proposed closure require consideration of its broader impact.
The groups also highlighted existing agreements between producers and RFG Foods and called for those commitments to be respected.
CFPA chief executive officer Jacques Jordaan said producers remained willing to engage constructively but needed certainty about their contractual arrangements.
With the next harvest approaching, the organisations said there was still an opportunity for businesses, producers, government, labour and potential investors to explore a commercially sustainable outcome.
