Farms & Nurseries
Altogether we care - conservation, sustainability and social responsibility are at the heart of the Westfalia way of working
Westfalia Estate
Declared a Natural Heritage Site and demonstrating the balance between indigenous forest (natural vegetation), sustainable agriculture and forestry the Westfalia Estate is situated on the foothills of the Drakensberg Escarpment near Tzaneen in the Limpopo Province. This farm was home to Dr Hans Merensky – its founder – and is the centre of Westfalia’s agricultural operations.
For many years citrus was the main agricultural crop grown at Westfalia Estate. The citrus production was phased out in the late fifties, with the last trees being removed in the early 1960s. Since then the avocado has been the dominant agricultural crop. In the late 1980s, the Westfalia business interests were expanded to incorporate other sub-tropical fruit.
Constantia Estate
For 20 years Westfalia invested in the purchase and development of the following farms:
Constantia Estate in the Lower Letaba River Valley near Letsitele; Marieskop Estate in the Hoedspruit area and in 1991 Goedgelegen Estate in the Mooketsi Valley.
The geographical spread of operations across all the different farms provides Westfalia with the ability to stretch its season over a longer period of time – an important factor in its strategy of supplying year-round fruit. Westfalia has invested further in prolonging the South African season by recently acquiring interests in the later producing Morebeng (Soekmekaar) area and planting large areas of later cultivars at Everdon. Marketing and “club cultivar” agreements have also been secured with partner growers in the Eastern and Western Cape as a source of later fruit. Growing avocados in different areas is also important to mitigate climatic risks.
Everdon Estate
A large portion of this farm is managed as an organic farming unit and is the largest producer of organic avocados in South Africa. It has been declared a Site of Conservation Significance by the Kwa-Zulu Natal National Parks. Everdon – The Home of Organics – overlooks the Albert Falls Dam and is located five kilometres from Howick in the Kwazulu-Natal Midlands. The estate nestles on the very edge of the Drakensberg escarpment, flanked by the Karkloof and Umgeni valleys. The fruit in Kwazulu-Natal matures later than in the North-Eastern areas of Limpopo, enabling an extension of the picking season by two to three months – an important strategic factor in the marketing programmes for avocados.
Westfalia Nursery
The Westfalia Nursery is located on the Westfalia Estate. It is the leading nursery of its kind in South Africa, dedicated to the production of high-quality trees and committed to research and development. The nursery is a major supplier of superior avocado trees to the agricultural sector, producing over 130 000 trees per annum for Westfalia as well as other growers, both nationally and internationally.
