Dube AgriZone Phase Two... Looking at Options

Dube TradePort Corporation’s 90-hectare AgriZone Phase two is readying for take-off as soon as its Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process is complete, although only a third will be developed to start with.

“Dube AgriZone has had some interesting responses to its open call for proposals for Phase two projects, but few have met the stringent criteria,” says Mlibo Bantwini, Dube TradePort Corporation’s Executive: Dube AgriZone.

These criteria include concepts that differ from those already developed in AgriZone Phase one, require local economic development of the surrounding local small-scale farming community, are export-focused and create employment.

One of the proposals being considered is a four-hectare aquaculture production enterprise which, when fully operational, is expected to produce 300 tonnes of fish per annum for export. The fully grown fish would be harvested and packaged on site.

Bantwini says the potential operator has raised some of the investment and has a purchase agreement with a buyer from the Far East. The project is a zero-waste concept based on aquaponics, which is producing crops and fish in a self-contained system. Other proposals will be evaluated by the end of the financial year.

“Design engineers for Dube AgriZone Phase two were appointed last year and the projects, once decided upon, will inform the design of the zone and feed into the EIA process,” says Bantwini.

Also planned for AgriZone Phase two are production facilities, plastic greenhouses and tunnels that are not as high-tech as those in Phase one, and will be leased on a 30-year basis. The reason, according to Bantwini, is they are temporary in nature as they will be constructed on the site, ultimately intended for the airport’s second runway. Distribution and packaging facilities similar to that being used in AgriZone Phase one are also on the cards.

On the greening front, AgriZone Phase two, in conjunction with an international private sector company and the University of KwaZulu-Natal, is investigating waste-to-energy options. One of these options involves the installation of an anaerobic digester to compost green waste. On average, five to eight tonnes a day of organic waste material is produced in the 16-hectare greenhouse operation.

“Green waste is by far the largest by-product and costs our operation as we are paying to have it transported to a composting site daily. Savings could be had if this was processed on site and produced energy,” says Bantwini.

The digester is a capital-intensive investment and Dube AgriZone will need to partner with other institutions should the project prove feasible.

The challenges being faced by agriculture, from higher labour and transport costs to high input costs, such as that of fertiliser, which has been affected by the Rand, have impacted Dube AgriZone’s fresh produce growers, which have seen crop prices plummet.

However, the impact on Dube AgriZone Phase one farmers could have been worse had it not been for the solar energy system powering the greenhouses, as well as the rainwater harvesting and recycled irrigation water system. In January alone the AgriZone saved R140 000 on electricity by using solar energy, and the green initiatives being considered for AgriZone Phase two will further assist farmers.

Dube AgriZone Phase one constitutes an end-to-end facility, inclusive of the Dube AgriLab for plant tissue culture, greenhouse production and a packaging station. The highlight of its 2013 year was Farmwise, a fresh produce and salad packaging company, becoming fully operational.