The Eastern Cape Development Corporation (ECDC), in collaboration with several organisations, is helping establish the Eastern Cape’s much-anticipated Longmore flower trail, one of the province’s most strategic agricultural and eco-tourism projects.

The trail will include some of the province’s most scenic areas, and stretch over approximately 100 km - from the Great Coega area in the east and to the Baviaanskloof border in the west.

The go-ahead for the trail is about eight months off and is dependent on a positive feasibility study which is already underway by the Agricultural and Industrial Marketing Company (AIM).

“If the trail goes ahead, it will bring much cohesion to the pockets of flower expertise in the area. The trail allows the province to capitalise on existing flower business interests in the region by organising these into a strongly branded route, similar to the Western Cape’s Namaqualand flower route. It will also create a platform for the growers to diverse into tourism and leverage off existing tourism initiatives,” explains AIM MD Anton Scheepers who is the project sponsor.

He says development of the trail is a not isolated process but one that would feed off other flower projects within the region as well other development initiatives such as Coega. Furthermore, the trail will act as a gateway into the bordering Garden Route and Otter Trail.

“The strategic nature of the project lies in its potential to address the job creation and economic growth challenges of the area. By harnessing the province’s existing strength as a world class flower grower, we will be able to grow badly-needed jobs in the province. The flower and tourism sectors are seen as strong job creators which was reiterated in a recent global study which showed flower-growing as having the third biggest multipler effect,” says ECDC project development specialist Ken Bern.

The area plans to expand from its formidable protea flower growing profile into other cut flowers such as strelitizias.

An impressive array of organisations ranging from the Eastern Cape Tourism Board, Land Affairs, various provincial departments such as Agriculture and local government players, have signalled their support for the initiative. It is in this area that ECDC has been instrumental and brought many of these players together.

Scheepers says the project has powerful black economic empowerment credentials. “Almost all of the farmers who are involved or who will be involved will be coloured and black.”

"The objectives of the flower trail project are in line with the policy of the Department of Land Affairs that states, that non agricultural enterprises such as eco-tourism projects will contribute to the redistribution of 30% of the country's agricultural land, improving nutrition and incomes of the rural poor who want to farm on any scale, and expanding opportunities for women and the youth," says Department of Land Affairs deputy director general Charlie Josephs.

The epicentre of this route is another BEE initiative. It’s a Thornhill flower farm, some 70 km outside Port Elizabeth.

Boasting world-class skills in fumigation and pack house, Longmore Farm is one of the biggest cut flower operations in South Africa as well as being the largest BEE operation in the area. There are about 20 to 30 flower farmers nationally.

The 85 hectare farm, formerly part of the South African Forestry Company (SAFCOL) was started about ten years ago. However, the farm was sold off to four employees during the government privatisation process three years ago.

The foursome is headed by managing partner Zyta Soomar, a former horticulturist from the Western Cape and includes Zaisile Dyana, Lena Geswindt and Dennise Koert.

Armed only with their severance packages and a rescue plan which addressed five critical success factors, the team has built the farm into an even greater success. Now fully accredited with Agricultural Research Council (ARC), the farm supplies up to 42 000 stems a month in peak season to Europe. This translates into between five and seven tons of flowers.

Currently the farm, situated in the heart of the 30km Panoramic Route, employs about 20 people and is involved in the cultivation of some of the newest and rarest flowers in the area such as the Leucospermum Radebe Sunrise and the Strelitzia reginae Mandela’s Gold.

It is also about to spearhead an ambitious outreach programme in neighbouring Loerie and Hankey to encourage more black farmers to get involved in flower cultivation.

AIM is assisting the trail with a total sustainability analysis and has looked at issues such as flower growers’ marketing processes, its markets, alternative crops, possible alliances with global logistics players as well as other governments such as The Netherlands.

Another positive initiative resulting from this reengineering process has been the establishment of student exchanges between South Africa and The Netherlands that aims to benefit black students from South Africa.

Following the success of Longmore and the Eastern Cape flower trail, Scheepers has been invited as guest speaker to the Trade & Investment Conference which will be held in Port Elizabeth from 31 May to 3 June 2005. This conference is amongst the most prestigious investment conferences and attracts the country’s top government officials and foreign investors.