Pineapple Farm

Premium Pineapple Farming in Hluhluwe Since 1998

The journey started when Cobus Oosthuizen, the owner and primary motivator of Mazuri Pineapples approached his father with a business plan which resulted in what we see today! His plan was to plant pineapples which are a proven successful fruit in Hluhluwe and to grow the business in order to maximise return.

The planting process started late in 1998 with pineapple plants supplied by a generous fellow farmer (Gert van Rooyen) as he removed them from his older pineapple plantations. The late Dawid Conradie assisted with a tractor, James Domleo offered another tractor and trailer and Johannes Meyer supplied the balance of tractors and necessary equipment needed plus most of all, his expert advice. These generous farmers deserve huge credit for their early-day assistance in enabling Mazuri Pineapples to plant 510 000 starter plants by September 1999. Harvesting started with the dedicated help of 10 permanently employed staff at that time.

Supplying Premium Pineapples Nationwide

Through dedication and extremely hard work, many days from 4:00 am to 23:00 pm, Mazuri Pineapples was able to produce an excellent quality product and was soon approached by well-known supermarket chains and fresh-cut processors to become their national supplier. As years went by the operation was expanded by renting property on a “3-year rent-to-buy” basis which worked very well. This strategy was maintained for many years until the cashflow was sufficient to adopt different strategies for the business model.

Over a period of 21 years, Mazuri Pineapples has been blessed greatly and has been able to expand their operation to well over 1 000 hectares of land producing +/- 10 625 000 pineapples per annum. Mazuri Pineapples’ success is attributed to is an incredible team of 118 highly committed permanent staff members without which this smooth sailing operation wouldn’t run as efficiently and effectively as it does. Cobus says - ‘The staff consists of our superb general workers, productive and efficient farm managers and then of course the most conscientious administrators in the office, the heartbeat of the operation.’