The Golden Way:
Success through
Innovation and Quality
We highlight some of these…
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Over a period of 30 years, innovation has been a very real business approach of the Group, resulting in industry-changing developments that have impacted the lives of agricultural role players, and even the consumer, throughout the world. Real innovation requires both ideas and execution, and while many entities talk about ideas only, ANB has a history of both. It has become an essential part of the ANB success story and legacy. We highlight only some of these exceptional beacons of innovation during three eventful decades:
The Nadorcott story
The Nadorcott variety, developed by Dr El Bachir Nadori from Morocco, was one of the initial new varieties that were brought to South Africa from abroad by Citrogold. Citrogold, who played a critical role in introducing the variety to the country and enabling the large-scale success that it is today within the South African citrus industry, with the assistance of other role players such as the Du Roi Nursery. Today, there are more than [5,000] hectares of orchards planted to the variety among 200 producers of the variety in South Africa alone, and through Fruitalyst the high-quality fruit are marketed successfully under such brands as ClemenGold® and Sweet C®.
Branding fruit – the game changer
The idea of establishing an independent consumer brand for a specific variety, first undertaken in South Africa with the ground-breaking Nadorcott variety, was visionary especially at a time when prices were very good and fruit was entering into a relatively open market. By investing in branding as a tool to speak to the consumer, introducing strict quality standards and forming long-term strategic relationships with select retailers, ANB has showcased the latent potential for premium quality citrus and has established flagship citrus branding programs internationally. In doing so, it has proven that strong branding, backed by marketing excellence, customer management and an integrated, supportive value chain are a much safer way of securing sustainable market success for all producers.
A technology-rich approach to agriculture
CITRII (Continuous Improvement Through Research, Innovation and Intelligence) was established in 2018 as a centre of excellence at the heart of ANB’s operations, to drive efficient production and planning through expert knowledge and insights, as well as the application of technology. One of the results is a database that can be actively evaluated and managed in real time, starting with a farm census – mapping the plantings of the company’s IP according to a geolocation system, as well as other data (including irrigation, weather, yield and pest pressure) critical for modelling the farming environment. Beyond this, we have rolled out the use of technology in-field to further improve the efficacy of orchard management.
Du Roi Nursery: for more than plants
In 2008 already, Du Roi Nursery’s dedicated biosecure nursery structures were registered as greenhouses free from citrus black spot (CBS). This opened new markets for the delivery of trees in areas classified as “low CBS incidence” and African greening areas such as Weipe, Tshipise, Vivo and neighbouring African markets. The Du Roi Nursery is currently at the forefront of testing new technologies to further improve the quality of its plants, as well as finding new ways to better the support the broader Southern African region through innovations in the way trees are potted.
Du Roi Laboratory serving the global banana industry
Du Roi Laboratory is the Southern Hemisphere’s leading and only ISO-accredited banana tissue culture facility. It has been granted the commercialisation rights to supply Formosana, a Panama disease tolerant banana variety, for Africa, the Middle East, Caribbean Islands, French West Indies and South and Central America on an exclusive basis.
On the farming front
Indigo Fruit Farming has from the start been known to be early adopters of new technology and methodologies in their orchard development and production practices. Indigo has for example challenged the status quo with high-density plantings, years before others in the industry followed suit. Whereas the industry standard was ±435 trees per hectare at the time, the very successful Indigo Fruit Farming standard currently stands at 1,666 trees per hectare, with new developments going to 2,222 trees per hectare.
Packing excellence
State of the art packing facilities situated in the Group’s production areas, pack and distribute citrus and sub-tropical fruit to markets across the globe. Five major packhouses, possessing some of the world’s most modern equipment, adhere to the highest international quality compliance standards.