explore: Wines - Fruit - Flowers - Beef Cattle

Oak Valley is one of the largest deciduous fruit production units in South Africa with 335 hectares currently under production. 70% of this hectarage is planted to apples, whilst 30% is established to pears. Oak Valley has invested large amounts of capital in modernising the orchard capacity with new cultivars being introduced in line with current market demands. Two thirds of the total fruit area is planted to high value varieties. Production averages
16 000 tons of fruit per annum.

With apples the varietal mix includes Pink Lady, Sundowner, Fuji, Braeburn and Royal Gala as well as the more standard Golden Delicious, Granny Smith and Topred.

The pear mix includes Abate Fetel, Forelle, and Doyenne du Comice as well as a lesser hectarage of Packhams Truimph.

Oak Valley was one of the first three farming units outside of the EU to achieve the prestigious Tesco Natures Choice accreditation and is also Eurepgap accredited giving it priority access to supermarket shelf space in these important markets. The Natures Choice accreditation was upgraded to Gold status in Jan 2004. Oak Valley has also achieved preferred supplier status with Waitrose in the United Kingdom.

The Oak Valley fruit crop is packed and stored at the Two-a-Day Group Limited (established 1948) where Oak Valley is a substantial shareholder. The Two-a-Day Group has a wholly owned subsidiary Elgin Fruit Juices (Pty) Ltd which was established in 1980 to deal with processing quality fruit on its shareholders farms. This fruit is converted into apple and pear juice concentrate for sale in markets across the world.