Hi, my name is Hein Koegelenberg and I manage Mont Piquet farm in the Western Cape of South Africa. The closest town is Piketberg, 120 km north of Capetown, which lies on the slopes of the Piketberger Mountains.  The name Mont Piquet was chosen because we planned to start a wine cellar and it sounded more refined. The farm is 1000 ha which were formerly used for cereal farming.  Now we cultivate 20 ha of citrus and 88 ha of table grapes.  A former vegetable area was converted to grow food for our ostriches, which we pastures on the previous grain land. 

We are in the fortunate position of having our very own water supply, which comes right from the mountains and is captured in the reservoir right in the middle of our farm. We currently farm 12 ha of organic table grapes and we hope to be able to expand that. We make our own compost almost exclusively from ingredients we have on the farm.

I came to Mont Piquet in 1999, as a production manager.  Now I run the farm operations.  We started converting to organic in 2002, as I had been considering how to be more “green” and do something for soil fertility. We employ 50 permanent workers.  During the season of November through February our labor force expands to 500.  85% of our seasonal workers are women.  We value our female workers for their smaller hands and the patience they have to do the manual work required to take care of grape vines. 

Labor is scarce and expensive because our work force does not live near the farm.  We recruit them from the surrounding areas as far as 50 km away.  Over the years we have built up a good reputation since many of the seasonal workers return to work for us year after year. 

We committed years ago to uplifting our employees and now we have gained Fair Trade certification.  Our workers get extra wages.  Plus we have a worker-owned farm store, a competitive league rugby team, and a worker-organized computer room.