Solar park helps WelMacs' macadamia thrive (which benefits local jobs)

WelMac stands for Welgevonden Macadamia. The nut farm lies in the scorching sun of Limpopo Province, in the north-east of South Africa. The land here is rugged, the nature of the African bush untouched, and the flora and fauna of breath-taking beauty. When Nick and Nicolas Grooss bought the farm, the 60 hectares were already planted with macadamia trees as well as mangos, lychees and guavas. But because of the potential of macadamia, they decided to focus exclusively on this particular nut. Macadamia is a natural product that can be used in various ways and to which all sorts of health benefits are attributed. The nut is said to be good for the heart and veins and to reduce cholesterol.

Nicolas Grooss explains: “Macadamia has great potential for growth. At present, macadamia nuts account for a tiny portion, 1 or 2 percent, of the whole nut basket, as it is called. Cashew and pistachio nuts, by contrast, have carved out a large niche for themselves in the basket. Macadamia is an emerging product. We expect that it will not only become more established on the food chart but also increasingly turn up in shampoos and creams in the form of macadamia oil.”

The business, based in the Netherlands and South Africa, got off to a slow start. Extreme drought resulted in a disappointing harvest, and the nation-wide electricity shortages didn’t help either. “We installed an efficient and smart irrigation system on the farm that saves a huge amount of water — up to 70 percent compared to an earlier system. The system also ensures customized fertilization so that each tree receives exactly the nourishment it needs. A fine example of precision farming. We had installed this when the utility company began load shedding. For part of the day no power was supplied, simply because it wasn’t available. We’d no electricity. So we had to search for a sustainable alternative to the generators that ran on diesel,” adds Nicolas Grooss.

That forced WelMac to search for an alternative, sustainable source of energy. In a country where the sun almost always shines, an investment in solar panels seemed a logical choice. But securing the necessary funding proved a tough challenge. A Dutch bank could not issue a loan, in part because the assets of WelMac – almost all of which are registered in South Africa – could not be provided as collateral. Other drawbacks included the high-risk profile attached to investments in African countries, the size of the loan and the long lead-time before macadamia trees start to earn money.

Nick and Nicolas Grooss tell on entrepreneurship and how WelMac entered the sustainable macadamia market. A podcast from Grenzeloos Ondernemen (in Dutch).

And so WelMac came into contact with the Dutch Good Growth Fund (DGGF), one of the funds used by Invest International. The company was eligible for a DGGF subsidy loan of 2.75 million EUR. The money will be repaid over a number of years at a certain interest rate.

Investment Manager Stan Janssen of Invest International: “As a Dutch company, WelMac creates local employment and knowledge transfer, and it is committed to protecting the surrounding Welgevonden nature reserve. In addition, besides improving the quality and quantity of the harvest, the system with which the company had already experimented saves water. That made it eligible for a loan through the fund. And, of course, we’re also helping a Dutch company and the Dutch economy in this way.”

Nicolas Grooss explains that the loan has enabled WelMac to “build a complete solar park” and that they can now operate “off grid”. “Batteries and solar panels supply us with the necessary power. And, importantly, we can expand modularly as our operation grows over time. We want to plant more hectares and build a processing facility. Everything can be powered by the solar park that we’ve built with the help of this loan.”

Over time, WelMac expects to operate at a CO2 negative level because of the amount of CO2 absorbed by the huge number of trees. Emissions are limited to the tractors used on the land and the electricity now comes from solar panels.

• stimulating and developing WelMac in the Netherlands and South Africa.
• creating local and decent jobs in South Africa.
• sharing knowledge through various projects.
• promoting sustainable development by investing in the solar park.
• helping to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals 7 (Affordable and clean energy), 8 (Decent work and economic growth), 12 (Responsible consumption and production) and 15 (Life on land).