Capricot Ltd
Capricot is a joint venture between Agricultural Investments (UK) and Stems (RSA) in South Africa aiming to improve and lengthen the South African apricot production.
Our Story
The partnering of Agriculture Investments and Stems came from a long and fruitful relationship between DPS and Stems based on the importation of primarily stonefruit to the UK market.
Our Apricot Production
Our apricot plantings are split across 2 geographical areas; one in Tousrivier and one in Ceres, both in South Africa. At our Tousrivier farm, we have currently planted 18 hectares of apricots, which will rise to 30 hectares as the crops grow and more are planted over the coming 2 years. At our Ceres site, we have 8 hectares planted which will grow to 14 over the coming 2 years. Both of the farms are growing a mixture of current and new PSB and Carmingo varieties of apricots.
We Care for Our Crops
At our Touwsrivier site, the area can be prone to low temperatures and frost so the majority of the apricots are covered and we have adopted state-of-the-art frost protection. This protection includes having heaters and burners to heat up the cold air which, when combined with the frost fans that we installed, are able to spread the warmer air over the crop to ensure frost risk is mitigated.
Our Plans for the Future
We are optimistic as to where we see Capricot going and we expect to be growing 44 hectares of apricots by 2023, which can be increased even further if there is even more demand for our delicious apricots.