Former engineer, now farmer, Louis’ search for sustained quality starts with that which is carefully planted in the rich, fertile soil of the Wildeklawer farm on the banks of the Vaal River which is situated close to Barkley West, in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. Wildeklawer is indeed the home of the strongest onion seedlings that are nestled from the best seed that are internationally available. South Africa’s best producers grow the Wildeklawer potato seeds, in order to ensure that top quality products are produced on the Wildeklawer farm.

This onion-potato partnership, says Louis, is notably the perfect combination. The various seasons for each harvest produce an ideal situation where all Wildeklawer’s resources such as the employees, pack houses and soil are optimally utilized throughout the year.

Cora de Kock, former lawyer, entered the marketing world to help establish Wildeklawer as a prestigious brand. Currently she is still involved at Wildeklawer as a Director as well as with leading the business’s involvement with various schools, most importantly the Super Schools initiative.

Our farm was originally bought as a bankrupt farm with weak, sandy agricultural soil. Through hard work we have converted the farm into one of South Africa’s most productive and effective farming businesses.

The farm is completely irrigated with pivot irrigation and the farm’s natural characteristics include the following:

• Hutton soil that gets blown in from the Kalahari Desert.
• Clovelly soil that runs down from the Vaal River.
• Water from the Vaal River.
• Northern Cape sunshine.
• A dry climate with healthy harvest production under irrigation.
• Natural sunshine helps to keep the ground ‘clean’.

       OUR INFRASTRUCTURE

• Irrigation
• Pivots
• Underground pipelines
• Underground electrical cables
• Riverfront
• Laser scraping

OUR HISTORY

Wildeklawer has come a long way and to understand exactly how far Wildeklawer has come, one has to know the story about Louis and Cora de Kock..

Approximately twenty years ago, the owner of Wildeklawer, Louis de Kock, turned his back on an academic career as a lecturer in agricultural engineering at the University of Pretoria. He returned to the Northern Cape to start the Wildeklawer farm on the banks of the Vaal River, nearby Barkley West.

His wife, Cora moved with him, and together they converted the farm into South Africa’s largest single producer of onions (with the farm packing up to 2.4million onions in the peak seasons).

Apart from playing such a crucial role in the production of top quality onions and potatoes, Wildeklawer is also the country’s largest producers of:

• Wheat
• Maize
• Potatoes
• Watermelons
• Gem Squashes
• Pumpkins
• Cotton

Since Wildeklawer opened their doors, or rather fields, as a business in 1987 they produced jobs to the local community and today they have more than a thousand employees of which four hundred are full time employees and six hundred are seasonal workers.

What distinguishes us from the rest and makes us the best:

• Creativity and focus on detail in all facets of the farm and marketing
• Professional management on all levels
• Discipline and responsibility
• We specialize in vegetables
• The strongest technologically driven farm in the agriculture sector
• A holistic approach to cooperating with nature
• The client is priority
• People orientated
• Research and development plays in important role in Wildeklawer’s future
• Strong approach to marketing and packaging of our product
• Minimal tolerance in regards to accuracy and quality
• Productivity
• Pursuit of perfecting a business that is known to make zero mistakes

• First onion producer to be EurepGap certified in 2003
• First sweet onions in South Africa
• Laser pivots
• Installation of water pipeline with laser equipment for maximum efficiency
• Improved efficiency of fuel and tractor – working in spiral, from inside to outside of centre pivot
• Precision vegetable production with GPS technology
• First agricultural entity to sponsor provincial Rugby Team
• Conceptualised and invented the first fruit and vegetable grading equipment “25 years too early”
• Developed and built numerous implements and pack house equipment

Innovation in packaging:

• Potato bags – blue, green, red and brown (sport photos)
• Colour-coded onion bags – first in the world (customer recognises product easier)
• RSA flag bag for onions – first multi-coloured onion bag in the world
• First automatic onion packing machine
• First atmosphere controlled storage facility< ;/li>
• First to split the medium to medium-large onion – supply a more uniformed product to customers. This was then extended to potatoes – hence, has now become a national benchmark

Wildeklawer is proud to be the first onion grower in South Africa to have achieved EurepGAP registration.

Get a taste of our quality produce and we have no doubt you will agree –
‘our fresh is best’.

EurepGAP was initiated as a supplier/retailer response to consumer demands for safe food, produced with respect for worker health, safety and welfare, the environment and animal welfare, EurepGAP describes itself as a “global partnership for safe
and sustainable agriculture”