Our Environment and Sustainability

Our Environment and Sustainability

Fruitways take our role as custodian of the land we farm very seriously and one of our key values is that we will maintain and improve the environment in which we work.  With this in mind the following initiatives form part of the daily management practices in which we are proudly involved in.

Improvement of Soil Health

The farms initiated a project in 2008 with the objective of improving soil health in a sustainable manner and have progressed along this path in such a way that the visible results of the project can be clearly seen at different times of the year. A paradigm shift was required to change the way we see and manage naturally occurring companion plants to assist in building carbon in the soil.

Theewaterskloof Conservancy

The Melsetter Group was a founder member of the Theewaters Conservancy, a voluntary project where Cape Nature, Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, as well as a number of landowners got together and set aside a portion of their land to ensure that the area got rehabilitated to its original state and introduced indigenous fauna back into the area. 

Groenlandberg Conservancy

Eikenhof Farm, one of the Fruitways farms finds itself surrounded by the majestic Groenlandberg Mountains, which forms part of the Koegelberg Biosphere, a World Heritage Site. Naturalists have identified this area as unique, and the Floral Kingdom found here is a source of National pride. For this reason and the reasons mentioned above the farm is one of the founder members of the Groenlandberg Conservancy. To read more about the project click on www.greenmountain.co.za .

WWF Biodiversity and Wine Initiative

Eikenhof farm is a champion member of the WWF Biodiversity and Wine Initiative and has fulfilled all the stringent requirements of this audit to gain their championship status. To read more on this project click on www.wwf.org.za . Management ensures that these initiatives naturally form part of their practices so that any visitor can visually see and feel the passion we have for the land we work and the pride we take in ensuring that we pass on a healthy and vibrant environment to our future generations. We all subscribe to farming practices that consider the earth and its people, in an economically sustainable way.