For the residents of George in the Western Cape, agriculture is an economic lifeline. This is especially true during the six-week hop harvest season which is said to create over 1 500 jobs and injects a revenue of R90 million into the area. George is the only area in the whole of Africa where this essential ingredient for beer making grows successfully.
Food For Mzansi learned just how important the annual hop harvesting season is to the area during a recent hop harvest tour.
Lauren Steytler, plant manager at the Rob Roy SAB hop facility, says that, naturally, the harvest season is the busiest period of the year. Among the puzzle pieces that need to fall into place, is the hiring of seasonal workers, which draws the interest of thousands of job seekers.
“The harvest injects a revenue of R90 million into the area. With the number of people we hire, we do a payroll of about R1.2 million. This is really uplifting the community,” she says.
But of course only so many people can be employed, which leads to thousands more being turned away.
Steytler says that their niche industry had fortunately not been severely affected by Covid-19 and they managed to retain their seasonal workers throughout the pandemic.
“[However,] this is the only job these people have for the entire year. It pains me that you get to a farm and you get about 500 [job applicants], and you can only take about 100 or so.
“It is very difficult because we also do drug and alcohol testing and some people end up failing the tests, which means we cannot [employ] them,” she explains.
Industry challenges
Among an array of industry challenges, load shedding is their biggest headache, Streytler says.
“From the time the hops are taken off from the farm, they need to go to processing in the next four hours. With us, the operations are non-stop. It’s a 24-hour shift, Monday to Saturday. There is really no time to stop.
“We are lucky that we have generators on the farms. However, load shedding is a challenge.”
And then there are smaller challenges, such as farmers in the area having to deal with baboons coming through their farms and ripping out water pipes, leading to water shortages and maintenance issues.
For South African brewmaster Apiwe Nxusani-Mawela, too, harvest season is the most exciting time of the year, as she is able to interact with people who work behind the scenes.
“For me, going to the farms and seeing all the hard-working people doing the harvesting [up to] the final product we have in our beers… that is the most exciting thing.”
Thinking back to the breweries that had to close down because of the lockdowns of the past two years, she finds the operations in George a stark contrast, but positive.
“It is very interesting and motivating to see that SAB managed to do the harvest for the past two years. It was during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic and they managed to be compliant in a time when alcohol [sales were] banned,” she says.
Harsh pressures on the beer industry
Beer Association of South Africa CEO Patricia Pillay points out that agriculture, beer, and agri tourism are her passion and something that she intends to promote as having the potential to create jobs and alleviate poverty.
“Micro- and craft brewers, restaurant and tavern owners, event venues and other small and medium enterprises have all contributed and played a major role in trying to reinvent the sector and, in turn, stimulated tourism and economic activity in their respective areas and communities,” she says.
But the harsh pressures on the beer industry, brought on by the pandemic, should not be ignored. Pillay says that it’s time government lifts the national state of disaster completely and allow the industry to grow and create jobs.
“Our government is encouraging private sector participation with regard to job creation, and the beer association wants to play a vital role in the country’s economic recovery plan by creating jobs and supporting livelihoods through the sustainability of our industry.”
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