When a massive mango harvest left Zine Madikwa with surplus fruit on her family’s Eastern Cape farm, she didn’t let it go to waste. Instead, she turned it into a business. Today, Eastdene Farms Fruit Juice is serving up nutritious, cold-pressed seasonal blends to a rapidly growing community.
Madikwa studied travel and tourism, a path that lined up perfectly with her sister’s catering and her mother, who had managed to get her own farm in Gunuza, Port St Johns, Eastern Cape.
In 2024, Madikwa harvested an abundant crop of mangoes from her family’s Eastdene Farm.
Squeezing big dreams out of a mango harvest
She says, “I took the remaining mangoes after selling them to vendors. Since we had so many left, I just decided to turn them into juice. It tasted so good that I brought one jar to town to let people taste it. The initial aim was just to see how they would receive it.”
A particular friend asked her why she couldn’t sell the juice officially, and that conversation boosted her confidence.
Most of the produce for her business, Eastdene Farms Fruit Juice, is sourced directly from her home farm and neighbouring properties.
Following successful trials, she applied for her nutritional analysis and microbiology test certificates, which she is still waiting for.
She says the support from day one from the people of Port St Johns and neighbouring communities has been amazing.
Madikwa notes that helping out with her sister’s catering business, combined with her travel and tourism management qualification from Esayidi TVET College in Port Shepstone, taught her a lot about health and food safety, which directly benefits her business today.
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Planting more trees to feed a growing demand
The business has already taught Madikwa that she needs to learn more. At the top of her list is studying toxicology so she can enter the formal commercial market. For now, strict cleanliness and paying close attention to safety have been the main reasons her clients keep coming back.
“I even had a woman who owns a wellness shop buy from me for her launch,” Madikwa says. “Now she wants me to supply her shop with a few of my juices.”
With the business growing, she sees the need for machinery and bigger fridges, especially a deep freezer and a cooler.
On her big dream board, Madikwa sees her brand on retail shelves.
“These are organic juices with organic preservatives, made from real fruit and vegetables straight from the farm.”
To keep up with the growing demand, she also needs to plant more trees. She adds, “Most of my juices are cold-pressed. I prefer this method because you get all the nutrients without them being destroyed by a machine.”
Focusing on fresh, seasonal flavours
Eastdene Farms Fruit Juice has varieties such as guava juice infused with lemon balm water, guava and ginger, super green juice, naartjie, caro-pine juice, and beetroot juice.
“I make seasonal juices. Basically, from December to February, I had mango juices and blends,” Madikwa says.
She tells Food For Mzansi that the guava and ginger are her best sellers. One of her juices is made from stinging nettle, amaranth, spinach, lemon balm, mint, and apple, which is packed with many health benefits.
“The beetroot juice is quite different from your typical beetroot juice because it’s mixed with pineapple juice and apple. It masks that earthy smell and taste of beetroot a bit.”
Madikwa explains that her sister owned a book that explained a lot about plants, edible plants, and their medicinal benefits. Combined with her studies, the book has inspired her knowledge of which vegetables go with which fruits for specific benefits.
For her business growth, Madikwa says she is also starting to show up at farmers’ market days and exhibitions. The next one she is attending is on June 27–28 in Nyandeni, Libode.
For other brand makers, Madikwa shares a few tips:
- Be patient with your brand: Not everyone will see your vision.
- Be open to criticism: Some people are just point-blank negative, but some are there to help you see the littlest things about your brand that you didn’t realise needed work.
- Be open to suggestions.
- Be brave: Bravery will make you knock on doors when you don’t know if they’ll open or not, but you’ll never know what is on the other side of the door.
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