It took two weeks into Mechanical Engineering degree studies at Wits University for Thiofhi Muthikhitha to find out what he was cut out for when it came to careers. A lecture in which new students were requested to share their background to check if their chosen fields of study were in line with their lived experience was a turning point in his life.
“That session completely changed my life. Soon after I narrated my story, it suddenly dawned on me that growing up in a village where I was assisting my parents practicing farming successfully without any academically acquired skills and knowledge, agriculture would have been my natural choice for a field of further education,” recalls Muthikhitha.
He did not waste time in retracing his steps, abandoned the Mechanical Engineering course at Wits, and enrolled for an Agricultural Engineering degree at the University of Venda. As the university had just introduced the course, Muthikhitha became the first and only student for the whole of that academic year.
Today, he has no regrets. With a doctorate from the University of KwaZulu-Natal under his belt, a successful agricultural consulting business, and a highly productive macadamia farm to boot, everyone who doubted his sanity when he decided to leave Wits is happy.
“It has been a long journey, but I am grateful that everything I went through has been worth its while. My trials and tribulations, and labour of love for what I believed in and am passionate about, have yielded good returns. I always tell people that agriculture found me,” says Dr Muthikhitha
After establishing his company, Agricre, short for Agriculture and Rural Engineers, Dr Muthikhitha spent several years connecting macadamia nuts, avocado and honey farmers to the market as a consultant. His big break came in 2022 when he partnered with a United Kingdom-based company, Rainforest Concern to establish a foundation to train farmers in sustainable ways of fruit production. Rainforest Concern is a British conservation charity, protecting threatened natural habitats, the biodiversity within and the interests of indigenous people.
“Through the foundation we managed to bring together 53 subtropical fruit farmers around the Vhembe district in Limpopo and trained them on productive and sustainable farming methods. We also used Radio Phalaphala to extend our training to a wide range of farmers. At one point our 30-minute educational programme that was broadcast at 4:30 in the morning had 54 000 listeners,” recalls Muthikhitha.
“Our work as a foundation developed into a business deal in which our business, Agricre marketed fruits produced by farmers that we had developed into sustainable and profitable farmers,” he says.
An opportunity to sell these fruits to the international market came in 2023 when Muthikhitha was assisted by the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic) to spend three weeks in Germany as part of the Partnering in Business with Germany Programme. The programme is a partnership between the dtic and the German government through the German Corporation for International Cooperation, commonly known as GIZ.
The programme was designed to promote trade and investment linkages between Germany and South Africa by training and mentoring emerging exporters from South Africa to access the German market.
“While in Germany I had successful negotiations with representatives of Rewe, a supermarket chain in Germany with around 3 800 stores across the country. We subsequently clinched a deal with their distributor that saw us exporting 518 tonnes of macadamia nuts to Germany, with the help of mainly the small-scale farmers that we had worked with,” he says.
That deal made Muthikhitha realise where the money was. And he decided to follow the money by buying a 27-hectare macadamia farm near Makhado in Limpopo that is planted with 11 700 trees, with a capacity of 37 tonnes of nuts. The farm has created full-time employment for six people and up to 20 seasonal workers.
“I realised that macadamia is the bestselling product of all the subtropical fruits in our area. The agroprocessing part is even more profitable, hence we have quickly moved into processing the nuts and producing pure macadamia nuts oil that is flying off our shelves,” he adds.
“There is a high demand for the oil because it is produced through cold pressing, meaning that you put the nuts in the machine and press, nothing is added. It is organic. And that is what the market is looking for. Consumers use it for cooking, skin and hair. Beauty parlours are our biggest customers,” says Muthikhitha
He is happy that his company is gradually penetrating the domestic market and making its mark in the export market. In October last year he participated in an exhibition in Johannesburg with the assistance of the dtic and secured orders from Japan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
“We are also experimenting with new products such as milk and flour that we can produce from our macadamia nuts as part of diversifying our offerings. We are utilising the space available on the farm for crash crops and vegetable production that my wife, Mashudu, who is our sales manager, is responsible for. We are happy to be making a modest contribution in creating employment for the people of Makhado, and it is our plan to grow this company and create more job opportunities,” concludes Muthikhitha.
Agriculture found me – Limpopo businessman Dr Thiofhi Muthikhitha inspecting a cluster of newly-developing macadamia nuts on a tree
Dr Thiofhi Muthikhitha with bottles of pure macadamia nuts oil
Media Enquiries and Interview Requests:
Bongani Lukhele – Director: Media Relations
Mobile: 079 5083 457
WhatsApp: 074 2998 512
E-mail: BLukhele@thedtic.gov.za
Issued by: The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic)
X: @the_dtic
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedti?mibextid=ZbWKwL
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thedtic
Website: https://www.thedtic.gov.za/
Share this:
