An up-and- coming female farmer from Khayelitsha has landed her first big deal with a supermarket.
An ecstatic Ncumisa Mkabile, 27, tells the Daily Voice she has been approached by Khayelitsha Spar to supply them with her spinach.
Ncumisa made headlines last week when she harvested her first crop of spinach, which sold out within a matter of hours.
The young woman said she started farming chickens and vegetables in March this year.
“I used to have a catering company, but because of the lockdown, business was not doing so well and I looked for a piece of land to start planting green peppers,” she said.
She says because what she initially wanted to plant was a seasonal crop, she decided to grow spinach because it was a winter crop.
“There was a huge demand for my spinach, I then decided to also supply chicken and I have never looked back,” she says.
She says her initial aim was to sell to the public only, but she will now have to rethink her strategy.
“I got a call from the store manager at Spar who asked to meet with me and I was surprised when they asked me to supply them with spinach,” she says.
“This is big for me, it will open doors for other retailers to want my services and it will also help me grow my farm.”
Ncumisa says she told Spar that she has a small farm for now and they told her to only supply them when she is harvesting so that she does not feel pressured.
The manager at Khayelitsha Spar did not respond to Daily Voice queries.
Siyabonga Kalipa | siyabonga.kalipa@inl.co.za