DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) is on the news daily, either in support of or, more recently, against as the pendulum of politics and public sentiment swings. I am not going to talk about DEI other than say that I am an advocate of meritocracy. In the mid-eighties, diversity was the buzzword in Zimbabwe agriculture as it has become more and more so in farming in the UK. In the UK, it is driven by the need for economic survival as margins on traditional crops and livestock production are squeezed tighter and tighter by supermarkets, environmental costs and bureaucratic interference. In Zimbabwe, it was also to improve viability but more importantly, to access foreign currency (hard currency) to procure vital inputs, both capital and variable, especially tractor and equipment spares. Some of us, not me, the clever ones, also used exports to try and build a foreign nest egg for their retirement. Something not easy to achieve as many export crops required foreign based borrowings to fund the necessary expensive infrastructure such as irrigation, greenhouses and cold rooms. My accountant, John Knight, at that time senior partner at Coopers & Lybrand, kept pestering me to diversify. As the eighties are what I call my golden years farming in Zimbabwe, I was reluctant to do so. After all, I had great expectations of a stable future in Zimbabwe with the certainty that as the economy grew, there would be access to forex for all.
I did, however, en route to the Highland Show in 1987 with Joe and Wendy Whaley, set out to visit the Dutch flower auctions to see the flowers that would offer opportunity. This was not to be but at least at the same time, it allowed me to catch up with my mother's remaining sibling, Bunty, who had married a member of the Free Dutch Forces when he was stationed in Scotland during the Second World War. I had not seen her since before my mother's death way back in the mid-fifties. What shocked me most about exporting horticulture or floriculture produce was that everything was in the hands of a middle-man, your agent, who received his commission no matter what, while you, the grower, had not only the risk of growing and marketing the crop but in the event of a no sale the cost of packaging and airfreight, the two most significant components of the costs of getting the crop to the marketplace. Anyway, while on that trip back in Zimbabwe, the then chairman of the Commercial Oilseeds Producers, Robbie McManus, fell ill, and I was, as vice chairman, asked to return as quickly as possible to take over the chairmanship as their AGM was imminent. For the next eight years or so, I watched numerous new ventures start up around high-value agricultural exports but did not delve into them myself despite John’s continued chiding to do so. By then John was now head of Ernst and Young, Zimbabwe. We computerised when he suggested, although, for me personally, the then-available systems were way beyond my comprehension. One of his fears was not just access to forex for input purchases but also a hedge against inflation. It was not wise to save in local currency as inflation would soon erode its value.
“Due to inflation, as a tobacco farmer in Zimbabwe, it was easy to make a profit in the local currency; the problem was the same inflation quickly eroded profits as we saw our input costs soar. Cash farmers always made money, but suddenly, it made sense to buy most of your inputs pre-season on borrowed money. This trend was especially prevalent in young farmers. Money management by farmers was as important as their husbandry skills.” - Peter McSporran
My neighbour on the Eastern boundary of my farm, Mede, was Ian Gordon. Ian prior to becoming a farmer, had been a tobacco trader for Casalee, gaining a reputation as the best Zimbabwe tobacco trader in the Middle East, where he maintained a strong customer base. To us neighbours, he seemed to be a man with limitless resources and much to our interest, we soon watched him diversify into other crops. Ian was a handsome man, well over six feet, who, although charming, also had a commanding disposition. He was also an excellent farmer, perhaps not the cheapest, but he consistently achieved top results in yield and quality of whatever he grew. He was, therefore, looked up to by many as a role model, and many sought to emulate him. Equally, many of us just sat back and watched in awe at his courage and endeavour as he tried producing other crops. Ian was very much part of our community, so we would spend many evenings discussing farming, although when it came to the viability of export crops, he could become more reticent. I think he probably made more as an exporting agent than a producer, that is my personal assumption.
Anyway, watching over the fence, we first saw Ian venture into asparagus on a grand scale. There were never half-measures with Ian; it was boots and all. At one point his whole farm seemed to be under asparagus until overnight it was ripped out. He then told me he would grow timber and planted eucalyptus in all his vleis. Ian began constructing a large open-sided building, which he informed me would be a sawmill and timber storage unit. On nearing completion, the sawmill was suddenly converted into a huge packhouse and he started planting horticultural crops and soft fruits for export. This packhouse was large enough to cater for products from outgrowers and loads of vegetables and sweet corn began arriving from all over the country to be processed and packed for export through his company, Gordon's Country Fresh. This label could be commonly found on the supermarket shelves in the UK. Ian told me that although he was now the middleman, the agents in the UK were still making more than him, so he set up a marketing and distribution company in the UK. It was not long before he complained to me that his three expensive employees, their premises, and business costs were equal to his local costs in Zimbabwe, where he employed close to a thousand people, sometimes more at harvest. Ian did not give up, and he continued growing until he also lost his land under the Fast-Track Land Reform Program (FTLRP). Despite Ian’s endeavours and his efforts to convince me to grow horticulture for him, I did not, seeing the risks too high for the benefit. From my time in the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) I was often taken aback by how much our horticultural exporters borrowed in foreign currency (colloquially called hard currency) which made me extremely wary of investing, and I thought to myself any export crop I grew should have a local market as well.
The pressure was on my farming enterprise to look at other income streams, for by this time I had four senior managers demanding high salaries along with the fact I paid their private school fees. At one stage with my two girls, I was paying the private school fees for ten children. Therefore, just to keep them in school, I needed my managers to bring in more income.
This was open to discussion with the managers; whatever crop or livestock we diversified into I would need the buy-in of the manager doing the job. I do not think I heeded my own advice as well as I should have. The first diversification was into pigs. None of the managers showed any interest in these, so I took it upon myself to establish a two hundred and twenty sow unit delivering ninety pigs a week to Colcolm. More about the pigs next week when I cover my livestock enterprises.
I eventually heeded John in the mid-nineties and tried to convince a qualified rose grower to come into partnership on a rose project on our Rydal farm. It had ideal soils and plenty of good water. I would provide the land and the infrastructure, and he would manage the project. For myself, I had no interest in growing roses, nor did I have a suitable manager at that time on Rydal. In fact, unbeknown to me, the then manager already had a joint venture with the illegal gold miners on the farm. Probably a lot more lucrative than roses, along with much less market risk. For some reason, the interested managing partner dropped out, and as I was then busy at the CFU I also lost interest in establishing an export rose enterprise. The new manager, Tommy Billar, then agreed with me to start broiler production. We started small by doing ten thousand birds every six weeks under contract to Irvine’s. Tommy proved not to be a top poultry man, but we made money, and the two monthly cheques were welcome. Just before the land invasions we started growing potatoes despite the difficulty of procuring seed which the Mount Hampden potato cartel very much tied up. I do not mind saying that my friends, Rob Davenport and Peter Arnott were part of that group, no hard feelings in them ensuring the viability of their own businesses.
Back on the home farm, my workshop recently becoming farm manager on Mede Farm, Choppy Steyn, suggested converting one of the old chinchilla sheds to grow mushrooms. A pretty big and expensive conversion, which we did. At first, it worked well using imported spawn and it did not take long for marketing to be an issue. Ian Gordon said he would be interested in exporting them for me, and I started serious discussions about packaging when Graham Seaman in Goromonzi, the country’s largest mushroom producer, convinced the Government that he could produce equally good spawn locally, which proved to be a lie. Despite this, imports of mushroom spawn from South Africa were stopped by the Government. It did not take long for our yields to crash, as with many other producers, as the viability of the local spawn was atrocious. That was the end of the mushroom project. Funnily enough, Graham Seaman’s cousin, also Graham Seaman, farmed in Darwendale, a much more honourable man who also had been taken by his cousin in a previous joint venture.
"If you are going to grow a crop, never rely on a large producer to supply the seed. Rather, do not grow it as he or she will see you as competition. When things get tough, he will have control over your production.” - Peter McSporran
Then Choppy and I, after looking at Bob Cary’s and others' hypericum, thought that this crop could be a soft entry into export flower production. It did not require the enormous capital cost of greenhouses with shade cloth sufficing. This ticked along, but in all honesty, as I always suspected, the middlemen made most of the profit while we took all the risk. Our manager on Diandra at the time, Jack Readings, convinced me to try field flowers if I was reluctant to invest in horticulture. After all, we had the pack house and the cold truck on the farm already for the hypericum. This venture never really got off the ground as it was very seasonal, and flowers were nigh impossible to grow in the summer rains without vast amounts of chemicals to combat insects and diseases. Just before we lost our farms Choppy left us to go into a joint venture rose project with his brother-in-law Peter Tate, son of Richard. Unfortunately, the farm invasions put paid to venture, and they were to lose their investment.
My final attempt at diversification was broccoli grown by the then-manager on Diandra, Dave Craft, who had been up to date very much tobacco-focused. Dave and his wife Joan became firm friends and moved to Zambia where he managed a tobacco section for us up there after the land invasions in Zimbabwe. Dave and I obtained a contract from a recently established vegetable freezing plant at Mount Hampden, and them, being desperate for supply, convinced us to grow a very large hectarage which we did. Despite my trepidation, Dave convinced me he could do it. I have just remeasured the field used in Google Maps, and yes, my memory does not fail me, we grew twenty-five hectares during our first planting. It was ideal with tobacco as it grew and was harvested in the winter months. To my pleasant surprise not to say relief, it was a massive success with David achieving a yield in excess of twenty tonnes per hectare, well above the country average and well over our target yield. Further, it all went top quality, and not a single load was rejected. We did not manage a second crop as shortly after this, we lost the farms under the FTLRP.
In summary, my efforts in diversification were half failure, half success. Pigs, chickens and broccoli were successful. Hypericum and potatoes were so-so, while field flowers and mushrooms, for different reasons, were expensive disasters. Farming is not dull.
Disclaimer: Copyright Peter McSporran. The content in this blog represents my personal views and does not reflect corporate entities.
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