Building a Culture of Safety

At our farm, safety and well-being are top priorities. To ensure this, we provide various training programs to equip employees with necessary skills.

Our first aid training teaches medical emergency handling, and our fire-fighting course prepares for fire emergencies. We also have safety representative training to identify and mitigate workplace hazards.

With our orchard monitoring program teaches identifying and managing plant diseases and pests. Computer education is also provided to work with software and programs used in agriculture.

In addition, selected staff members undergo training and acquire licenses to operate various vehicles such as forklifts, tractors, tractors with spray tanks, and trucks.

This ensures that they have the necessary skills and qualifications to handle these vehicles safely and efficiently on the farm.

We also provide training in industrial tools, PPE usage, and responsible chemical use. With these skills and knowledge, we create a safe, healthy, and productive workplace.

Natural Vegetation Type in South Africa’s Hex River Valley

The Hex River Valley is located in a floral transition zone, known as the fynbos and succulent karoo biomes. Fynbos vegetation is found right throughout the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa.

In the Hex River Valley, the fynbos vegetation is found on the north to the southwestern side of the Valley and Matroosberg mountain. Fynbos is dominated by proteoid, restioid, asteraceous and ericaceous vegetation. Fynbos is very unique with more than 9 000 species of plants, with which more than 6 000 are endemic. This means that those 6 000 plus plant species are nowhere else found in the world, except in the fynbos.

The succulent karoo biome stretches from the Western Cape, the Northern Cape province of South Africa and up towards Namibia. It is home to one-third of the world’s succulent plant species. With 10 000 succulent species it is the richest area of succulent plants in the world. Unfortunately, this makes the succulent karoo a massive target for succulent poaching and illegal plant trade. The succulent karoo vegetation is found on the eastern side of the Hex River Valley and Kwadouw Mountain Range.

Due to the high levels of diversity and endemism of plants in these two biomes, there are also a great variety and endemicity of invertebrate, reptile, amphibians, birds and scorpion species.

We are privileged to have both the fynbos and succulent karoo vegetation on our two farm units. Fynbos is mostly found on the Matroosberg farm unit and succulent karoo on the Lavalle farm unit.