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JANNIE MARAIS
South African Representative
Jannie Marais is a Western Cape native and studied Horticulture and Viticulture at Elsenberg Agricultural College. After his studies, he moved straight into farming. After 14 years of managing both Stone and Pome fruit, he changed direction into the marketing side of fruit
as exporter representative in the Western Cape. This then morphed into the evaluation and promotion of new Stonefruit varieties. Jannie is passionate about the varieties he works with and even gets teased about his devotion to his IS Plums. Jannie is an aircraft enthusiast and spends his spare time at the airfield talking about planes.
JACQUES DU TOIT
Technical
Jacques du Toit grew up in Malmesbury in the Boland. His passion for agriculture started here and led him to Elsenburg Agricultural College, where he studied Horticulture and Viticulture. Jacques farmed for 22 years with Vineyards, Pome Fruit, Stone Fruit, Citrus and Cattle. For the past seven years, he developed one of the oldest wine farms in South Africa, Boschendal, into one of the biggest interspecific plum farms. The main focus was sustainable and biological agricultural practises throughout the Farm and Estate. One of his top achievements in his career was becoming Boschendal’s MD of Agriculture and Estate. Innovative thinking and passion for sustainable and new farming practices, soil health and upliftment in Agriculture have driven his passion into Agricultural Consulting and Farm Development. He is currently looking after 30 farms at CPC spread throughout the Western Cape.
HANS CHRISTIAAN MUYLAERT-GELEIN
Managing Director
Hans was born in Belgium and holds a Master in Political Sciences from the University of Leuven. He fell in love with South Africa during a visit and decided to stay and make South Africa his home. Hans has been building fresh produce businesses in South Africa for the past
25 years and has created several enduring brands in the industry. He currently manages the Unlimited Group and particularly enjoys driving innovation and sustainability. Since 1997, he has been working on improving the South African stone fruit and grape landscape with innovative local and imported genetics. He lives in the Winelands with his wife Farah and their three teenage children. Keen swimmer and an enthusiastic yet slow runner.
JOHAN BURNETT
Johan helps steer the company’s structure. With his broad experience in both farming and research, he is a great mentor. Johan advises CPC on both research development and sales of PBR plant material. He was previously the Business Development Manager (Agriculture), producer and ARC researcher. Johan gained extensive experience in managing table grape, vegetable and subtropical farms, business consultation, business plan generation, loan funding and grant applications in public and private sectors in the fruit, vegetable, and nut farming sectors. In addition, he has extensive experience leading technical and scientific teams that work on various agricultural products and has recently acquired, through extensive international travel, a thorough understanding of the most recent developments in South Africa and Spain’s almond and nut industry.
MICHAEL OOSTHUIZEN
Michael has extensive expertise in rolling out new planting projects of; plums, apricots and almonds and works closely with all nurseries and researchers. Previously he has done research and varietal evaluation for the stone fruit industry at Infruitec/Agriculture Research Council Stellenbosch for 18 years. Michael’s role at CPC is to visit farms with CPC cultivars, advise them on a technical level, and motivate producers to plant new, improved cultivars. Michael sources new producers in areas where CPC cultivars can be grown successfully and thrive. One of his passions is to motivate growers to successfully apply fewer chemicals when growing and improve soil health to engage in sustainable agriculture. He also believes maintaining good relationships is essential in fostering a better agribusiness.
The Custom Plum Company brings innovation to the stone fruit industry, positioned at the forefront of new varietal development. We provide a fully integrated approach to developing new stone fruit in South Africa, through the Zaiger Genetics breeding program since 2002. CPC is a joint partnership between Unlimited Group and Fresca Group, ultimately combining both companies’ material and technical/promotional strengths.
+27 (0) 21 860 1800
Jannie Marais:
57 Main Road, Paarl, 7646, South Africa
P O Box 3307, Paarl, 7646, South Africa