Jeandré du Preez
Farmers Weekly
Although Wayne Mansfield made useful connections in the fruit industry as a hawker, he knew little about farming. However, with the help of a grant and mentorship, he established a lemon farm near Paarl in 2013, and last year boosted his exports by 400%.
Before starting his lemon farming operation, Fruit Field Farming, just outside Paarl, Wayne Mansfield was a fruit hawker. “I grew up in Pniel and got involved in the fruit business by helping my uncle after school and over the weekends for pocket money. He’d buy the fruit from local farmers and I’d help pack the fruit to be sold at the Epping market,” he recalls.
After school, his father gave him a 1400 Nissan bakkie and he began selling fruit on his own. For Wayne, this was an excellent learning experience. “‘I came to know the industry and the people, and established good working relationships with farmers from the area.”