Organic Pecans

Nurturing an organic business with credibility

Agriculturists will tell you that pecans are difficult to produce successfully in South Africa. The trees require particularly long summers with exceptionally high temperatures and extremely low temperatures during very short winters. 

Most tellingly, pecan trees - which only begin yielding nuts in their eighth or ninth year - demand more water than is widely available in the country. Experts in agriculture will also tell you that organic farming is problematic, risky, expensive and time-consuming. 

But Hopetown farmer Chris Roux has been contradicting these viewpoints for almost a decade and cannot produce enough of SA's only European Union (EU) certified organic pecans, branded Roux Pecans, to meet the demands of his primary markets in Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands and Norway. 

He made the decision, in the late 1990s, that going the organic route was not only the responsible thing to do, but also that it made the most commercial sense. It was not, however, easy to convince others of his philosophy. "Even now, farmers are not encouraged to farm organically in South Africa," he says. "Fertiliser suppliers, machinery companies and other big cogs in the agricultural wheel want us to believe we cannot do without them and their hi-tech products. So it's something you have to go out on a limb for if you believe in it." 

Roux was determined to make a success of organic crop growing and production. After studying at Glen College of Agriculture near Bloemfontein, Roux began to question contemporary agricultural methods. He wanted to farm as naturally as possible and recognised that his family's farm, Ramah - located on the banks of the Orange River in the Northern Cape - was geographically and biologically ideal for pecans. 

Roux saw the potential of producing quality nuts with minimal intervention and so, in 1978, planted 5 000 trees on 50ha. In 1999 Roux's uncontaminated, preservative-, pesticide- and residue-free pecans became the first EU certified Ecocert pecan nuts from Africa. In 2001 the farm met the even more stringent standards set by the Swiss authority, Bio Suisse. Today he produces in excess of 100 tons of pecan kernels each year and is preparing to plant another 2 000 trees. The nuts are sold in ready-to-use vacuum packed units of 250g or 5kg blocks, in whole and half-kernel options. 

Ecocert means the farm qualifies to use the term "organic" to describe the entire process, from bud break in spring, through all agricultural procedures, harvesting and processing, to the delivery of the kernel in its marketing to all EU countries. 

Bio Suisse certification means Roux Pecans meet Switzerland's exacting organic standards that measure and monitor the natural diversity of the farm, and the absence of chemically synthesised pesticides, fertilisers, genetic engineering methods and unnecessary additives such as flavourings and colourings. Non-aggressive processing of foodstuffs is also essential to Bio Suisse certification. 

Roux, who laments the fact that the word "organic" is used with impunity in SA (with such fervour, in fact, that he has drastically limited his supply to local markets), believes that formal certification is essential to advance environmental and social responsibility. 

"If you are in the business of marketing products that lean on a word like 'organic', credibility is challengeable," he says.

source: Standard Bank