Harvest SA 85
Growing the future from the ground up
SUCCESS STORY
From humble roots to a world-class packhouse: the story of Emseni
The award-winning Emseni Farming in rural Kranskop, KwaZulu-Natal, has recently opened its new world-class packhouse, promising even greater success, higher productivity, and more prosperous avocado harvests. This remarkable achievement reflects Emseni’s vision, dedication, and commitment to excellence.
The new packhouse is an impressive 15,000 sqm facility with strong natural insulation, helping it operate energy-efficiently while main-taining cooler internal temperatures. Its 7,000 sqm cool room can accommodate different temperature regimes, allowing for sensitive step-down cooling and effective pre-cooling. The temperature-controlled packing area helps maintain an uninterrupted cold chain.
Its 7,000 sqm cool room can accommodate different temperature regimes, allowing for sensitive step-down cooling and effective pre-cooling.
The Masgcor Tomra packing line uses state-of-the-art, world-class sorting technology. With dedicated capsicum (sweet peppers) and avocado infeed and packing designs, the eight-lane machine can achieve up to 12 cups per second and up to 36 tons per hour on avo-cados. Its world-leading camera technology combines nine colour and infrared cameras per lane, capturing up to 300 images of each fruit. This enables Emseni to supply each cus-tomer with the exact quality and quantity of fruit they require, while maximising orchard yield and income for the grower.
Emseni is not only a leading avocado pro-ducer but also a leading producer of sweet peppers and a variety of other produce. What began in 1969 as vegetable gardens to meet the community’s physical needs grew into one of South Africa’s most successful, diver-sified agricultural legacy projects.
Before Emseni’s establishment, the farm-land was a wattle plantation covering many hectares. The founder of the KwaSizabantu Mission, where Emseni is located, the late missionary Rev Erlo Stegen, together with a handful of dedicated co-workers, cleared the land and planted staple vegetables. Two years later, they had enough cabbages, spinach and amadumbe (a starchy root vegetable) to feed themselves and sell in neighbouring rural areas.
Emseni grew over the years into a successful diversified agriculture project, including export-quality avocados. A proper packhouse
Two years later, they had enough cabbages, spinach and amadumbe (a starchy root vegetable) to feed themselves and sell in neighbouring rural areas.
is a critical link between the orchard and the market. It is essential in avocado farming because it preserves fruit quality, reduces losses and ensures that the fruit meets market requirements. Emseni’s packhouses began humbly and have grown steadily alongside the enterprise.
In 1983, the company planted the first sweet peppers in 3000-square-meter glass greenhouses and conducted various crop experiments. They also planted the first 300 avocado trees on fertile ground.
Picking and packing of the first avocado harvest began in 1986. Because Emseni had no packaging facility, it packed avocados under the trees for the South African market. Emseni established a basic warehouse only in 1995 for its first avocado export to Great Britain, and completed a Food-Safe-accredited packhouse for peppers in 2003. This milestone enabled Emseni to retail peppers directly and independently. A few years later, in 2007, Emseni renovated and expanded the packhouse. This allowed all farm products to be packed under one roof, with the addition of a fully automated product grading line capable of sorting by colour, weight, and size.
Upgrading the current packhouse started in 2025, along with the first construction work for a new packhouse. Dietmar Joosten, farm manager at Emseni, insisted, “It was crucial that the new packhouse not only provide much-needed space but also enable machinery upgrades, improve efficiency and support future growth. We trust God that Emseni Farming will continue to grow with grace and that through this work many lives will be touched.”
Emseni now has approximately 200 hectares of avocado trees, of which 150 hectares are in full production, predominantly the Hass cul-tivar. The new packhouse opened recently, in 2026. What began with six dedicated coworkers has grown into a large farm with over 600 employees, with plans for future expansion. An agricultural project with humble roots delivered a world-class packhouse, growing its future from the ground up!
In focus
What began with six dedicated coworkers has grown into a large farm with over 600 employees, with plans for future expansion.
Gerda Potgieter