Boers and other foreign farmers in Georgia | ბურები და სხვა საგარეო ფერმერებს

[Kokoity]

Georgia: Betting on Boers for an Agricultural Comeback

As would any farmer with 750 hectares of land to cultivate, 68-year-old Piet Kemp likes to talk crops with the locals. But Kemp usually needs a Georgian translator to do his talking. A continent away from his native South Africa, Kemp now runs a corn business in the southern Georgian region of Kvemo-Kartli, not far from the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.

“We had a little bit of a problem with wind this year, but we are still hoping to produce some 2,000 tons of wheat and 3,000 tons of corn,” said Kemp one recent workday, as he showed off silos, a tractor repair shop and brand-new machinery to a visiting reporter.

Kemp is one of the first in what the Georgian government hopes will be a long line of South African – primarily Boer -- farmers who will help revitalize Georgia’s sagging agricultural sector. But the official expectations go beyond simply planting crops.

Widespread sustenance farming means that Georgian farmers grow various crops on small plots of land and do not produce enough in a single location to meet commercial demand. Without a concentrated, local source of crops of consistent quality, Georgian retailers now often opt to import fruits and vegetables.

That means that agriculture, a traditional mainstay of Georgia’s economy, has taken a severe hit. The sector slipped from 14.5 percent of Georgia’s Gross Domestic Product in 2005 to 8.3 percent in 2009, according to official data.

To reverse that trend, the government is looking to South Africa. “The South Africans have a long experience in large-scale farming and animal husbandry,” said Georgian Agriculture Minister Baku Kvezereli. “They can set up such larger agriculture businesses in Georgia.”

But if the choice of foreign farmers seems random, the explanation lies with South Africa’s controversial land redistribution campaign, a reform that has triggered widespread violence involving Boers, descendants of ethnic Dutch migrants to South Africa. News of the difficulties sparked the idea of offering Georgia as an alternative for these farmers. President Mikheil Saakashvili’s call this January for agriculture to make up over 20 percent of Georgia’s Gross Domestic Product by 2016 added incentive to the campaign.

The proposal found a ready audience in Kemp, who expressed no concern about his security in Georgia following its 2008 war with Russia. “At home, I sat outside [on the porch] with a gun and a radio [walkie-talkie], so in case someone attacks, all the neighbors drive down,” he recounted. “Here, I just go around my business. No need for guns or anything. Everyone is friendly.”

Kemp first traveled to Georgia last October as part of a Tbilisi-organized tour for Boer farmers, and made the final move in March from his native province of Mpumalanga. He has since formed a partnership with a local farm owner, rented a house in the village of Sartichala, and, as part of the government program, received a Georgian passport. He’s studying Georgian and even considering becoming Georgian Orthodox.

So far, reactions to Kemp from neighboring farmers appear largely welcoming. Using a translator, he busily jokes with locals and shares tips about how to plant seeds deeper and more efficiently and how to get better results from machinery when planting and harvesting. He also is trying to convince his Georgian neighbors to quit their habit of littering farmland with used plastic bottles.

(...)Sensationalist headlines in the Georgian press claiming that thousands of Boers were about to descend on Georgia and take land from locals have added to these misgivings. In response, the government has largely clammed up about its campaign to recruit South African farmers. An online guide to farming opportunities in Georgia (www.boers.ge) set up by the Transvaal Agriculture Union of South Africa, which is cooperating with the Georgian government, used to have a detailed map of Georgian land for sale. Now, such information is available only upon request.

Nonetheless, despite the official reticence about the details, some observers believe that the Boer farmers can indeed help Georgian agriculture go commercial. “Most of all, they can bring the know-how that Georgian farming needs,” commented German Business Association Executive Director Uta Beyer.

(...)For his part, Kemp is trying to go about his Georgia mission diplomatically. He routinely distributes candy to local children and has plans for a youth soccer tournament. He hopes that his wife can set up a knitting or garden club.

In matters of land, though, Kemp draws on his experience with South Africa’s land disputes, and errs on the side of caution. He’s keeping his eyes on a plot of nearby land, but says he will not buy it until he knows for certain that locals are not using it.

http://www.eurasianet.org/node/63647

[VelesHomais]

So some boers have already set up their operations, I thought it hasn't come to that yet. Great news for everybody

[tbilisky]

Boers are one of the component, which will lead Georgian Economy to great achievements .. I welcome all boers to Georgia.. Let all the lazy peasents , whom the derelict piece of grounds belong to,learn something..

[Kokoity]

Переселение буров в Грузию начнется в этом году
15/06/2011

Переселение африканских буров в Грузию начнется в нынешнем году. До конца года буры вложат инвестиции в сельское хозяйство Грузии, в первую очередь в овцеводство.

В то же время менеджер проекта по переселению буров Джуба Маруашвили отмечает, что до сих пор между правительством Грузии и южноафриканскими бурами ни одного конкретного договора не заключено, сообщает "Бизнес Грузия" со ссылкой на агентство "Кавказ-Пресс".

По информации Министерства сельского хозяйства Грузии, несмотря на это, проект успешно развивается.

Напомним, что госминистр Грузии по делам диаспоры в начале 2011 года заключил меморандум о сотрудничестве с Аграрным союзом ЮАР.

http://bizzone.info/agriculture/2011/1308165202.php

[Kokoity]

Moses, these days, still has white hair. But he has no shepherd's staff, nor does he lead his followers with the help of stone tablets and a column of fire.

The 20th-century Moses sits in a khaki safari shirt before a laptop on the ninth floor of an old Soviet government complex in Tbilisi, the capital of the formerly communist Republic of Georgia, and manages his flock by email and on Facebook. Like the biblical Moses, though, Bennie van Zyl also struggles with impatience in the ranks.

"The questions they ask!" he said when I went to see him in Tbilisi this January. At one stage a few days earlier, he had been getting 60 online queries an hour. "If they go to the website, the information is all there."

The website he meant is boers.ge. It's the online portal for the project Van Zyl, the director of the Transvaal Agricultural Union (TAU), has been masterminding for nearly a year now: to send South African farmers to Georgia to rehabilitate the Georgian agricultural sector, which has languished since the end of communism.

Many of the TAU's (predominantly white) members are fed up with farming in South Africa, hence the flood of queries. But mountainous Georgia is also so far away, it's almost unimaginable. On the wall behind his laptop, Van Zyl has pasted a map he uses to conjure up soothing, familiar images. Ajara, the province in the west by the Black Sea, "looks like Tzaneen", he told me, pointing, and Kakheti, the wine-growing region in the east, "reminds me of the Franschhoek or Paarl area, or the eastern Free State".


Leading farmers to Georgia: Bennie van Zyl, director of the Transvaal Agricultural Union.

Farmland looks like farmland anywhere, to some degree. But here's the distinction Van Zyl draws between Georgia and South Africa that makes Georgia appear to be a promised land: he perceives a sense of possibility suffusing the landscape, of flush times to come, as opposed to already receding into the past.

"Oh, Eve," he said, turning from the map, a smile spreading across his face, the irritations of the farmers' emails forgotten. "Georgia is the most beautiful country in the world!"

Since early 2008, more than two dozen countries have approached South African farmers to ask them to come till their land. Most of these are in Africa and they mainly work with the TAU's counterpart, Agri South Africa (ASA), which, contrary to the TAU, has set a policy to help farmers go only to other African countries.

"I would go all over Africa, but I will never leave this continent," said Wynand du Toit, the deputy head of the ASA-affiliated mission to settle 49 farmers in the steamy south of the Republic of Congo. "This is my home."

The backdrop is diminishing food security. During the latter half of the 20th century, the world's agricultural powerhouses steadily produced more than enough grain to support a growing global population. But recently, and fairly suddenly, our food system has been revealed to be more fragile than we had thought.

In places like India and Ethiopia, newly emerging middle classes want to eat more meat, and developed countries want to make more biofuel. Both of these industries drink up grain. As the world becomes more and more one marketplace, freak spells of weather in one place reverberate in others, as when a drought last year in Russia spiked bread prices and sparked riots in Mozambique. And freaky weather may increasingly be the new normal, as even slight increases in temperatures upset the Earth's fine climactic balance.

It doesn't take a particularly benevolent leader to start worrying. Rising and fluctuating food prices pose a direct threat to regimes. "Give us this day our daily bread," goes the prayer, and with that assured, one can more or less be satisfied, but all kinds of dissatisfactions feel sharper on an empty stomach.

It was a fruit vendor who set himself on fire in Tunisia and touched off the conflagration of protests that recently swept the Arab world. He was protesting against the government he felt made his life as a food middleman unbearable. Bread became the theme of the subsequent anti-government demonstrations, as if freedom, being the sublime goal, had found its earthly signifier in flour. Tunisians waved French loaves at the riot police. Yemenis took to the streets with chapattis taped to their temples.

In a world where war is provoked by food scarcity, farmers are the peacekeepers. No surprise, then, so many regimes want more of them. Nations from Gambia to Zambia have been appealing to investors from countries with better-developed agricultural sectors to till their land. Between 2008 -- when a grain-price spike set off riots in 30 countries -- and 2009, nearly 60-million hectares of land deals were announced, an order of magnitude more than the pre-2008 annual average.

In this race to woo farmers, South Africans are emerging as highly eligible catches. In places like Georgia and Congo, they have a reputation as formidable ploughmen, although how they got to be so effective must by necessity remain a little vague in their suitors' imaginations. By extending South African farmers' 30-year leases on 80 000 hectares, with more land likely to come, Congo "is expecting abundant food", Pierre Mabiala, the Congolese Land Affairs Minister, told the United Nations' news agency IRIN.

Of course, the best for Mabiala would be to boost his own people's ability to grow food. But in many developing countries, the gap between what exists and what is needed is so big, it can seem impossible to bridge. In the Republic of Congo, the oil-rich principality west of the Democratic Republic of Congo, 95% or more of the food is imported, mostly from its former colonial master France and at heartbreakingly inflated prices. Congo has 12-million hectares of fertile land, enough to feed all its people and many others besides. But only 2% is farmed, mainly without modern tools. Building the internal know-how to get all the rest under cultivation would be a staggering undertaking.

In Georgia, meanwhile, reconstruction policies after communism mandated the division of formerly communal land into small private plots, on which farmers also using traditional methods now struggle to achieve any economies of scale.

So it can seem easier to import already successful farmers than to mint your own. The South Africans driving to Congo in a convoy next month to start clearing the tropical grass that grows taller than their Land Rovers have agreed to supply local markets before exporting and to set up an agricultural college to mentor Congolese growers. The Georgians, however, haven't made such demands. They just want what South Africa has got: properly modern-looking rural panoramas.

In his office in Tbilisi, the Georgian Cabinet minister in charge of attracting South African agricultural investment, Papuna Davitaia, answered the question of why Georgia was interested in South Africans by whipping out his iPhone.

"You flew to Georgia on an airplane, yes?" he asked me. "Did you see lots of cultivated land? No. The country looks brown." He leaned towards my chair to show me aerial snapshots of fields he had taken out of his plane window on a recent trip to Johannesburg. "When you fly over South Africa, what do you see? Lots of cultivated land. It looks good."

Davitaia's answer was a little funny, because one of the drivers pushing South Africans to consider farming abroad is their frustration with South Africa. The government has taken a recent interest in helping its farmers to do business in other African countries, working with Uganda and Angola on land deals along the rationale that shoring up the continental food supply also secures South Africa. "For us, it is win-win," said Selby Bokaba, the spokesperson for the department of agriculture, forestry and fisheries. "It is not an exodus. The farmers are leaving with our blessing."

Bleeding farmers can only be win-win up to a point, though. And some farmers openly embrace the exodus storyline. ASA points to crime, the creeping pace of bureaucratic processes and confusion over land claims as sources of uncertainty that inhibit farmers from making long-term investments in their South African properties, although a spokesperson said that farmers were "very grateful that we have better access to the political decision-makers" of late.

Van Zyl suspects that the interactions between white farmers and black politicians cannot but end negatively, given the history between the two groups. "I told [President Jacob Zuma] straight in his eyes, 'Mr Zuma, you cannot today say the commercial farmers are the most important to you and the next day dance in front of Cosatu saying bring me my machine gun,'" he said. "The whole world asks, 'Who does he want to shoot?'"

The Georgian government, on the other hand, is pulling out all the stops to appeal to farmers like Van Zyl. Boers.ge, the website it designed to promote Georgia's opportunities, carefully strokes a fed-up farmer's erogenous zones, boasting of the country's lightning-quick home-affairs queues and its new police stations made of Plexiglas, making the police service transparent, literally. Van Zyl was given an office within the ministry of diaspora, as if South Africans might just be long-lost Georgians on their way home.

At the end of January, on the first of four information tours organised by the TAU and the Georgian government, about 30 South African farmers were treated to a dinner hosted by the first lady of Georgia, who was born in Holland and chatted with the farmers graciously in Dutch. At the end of the night, a young Georgian official seized a microphone and performed De la Rey, the Afrikaans anthem celebrating the Anglo-Boer War general. He gurgled his g's on "General, General, soos een man sal ons om jou val" with gusto, having practised his accent by listening to the song over and over on YouTube.

The morning after the dinner, Van Zyl, his 30 farmers, a few Georgian officials and I piled into minivans to see the farms the Georgians had to offer. As we rolled through Tbilisi's industrial outskirts into the hinterlands, one of the farmers in my van jokingly shouted, "We come in peace!" The Georgian countryside, though, looked only ambivalently welcoming. On the way to the farms, we stopped to use a series of latrines, which were as uniform in their unspeakableness as they were great in their variety, ranging from a hole in the ground to a hut housing a pillar of poo as tall as a Namibian termite mound. (An American magazine once awarded Georgia the prize for the world's crappiest outhouse, after, yes, sending a poor reporter on an exhaustive global search.)

The landscapes we saw outside our vans' cold-fogged windows seemed to harbour a daunting array of natural and cultural mysteries. There were astonishingly conical peaks whose white tops were swirled like soft-serve cones by the wind. An enormous frozen lake across which a single tiny car was driving. Vast Soviet-era apartment blocks.

One farmer wondered aloud about the little puffs of grey smoke that hung outside every apartment window. What were the Georgians inside up to? "Smoking hubbly?" another farmer guessed.

Agriculture in Georgia has languished since the end of communism and there is not much cultivated land.

When we got to the plots the government wants farmed, they weren't exactly what the South Africans had been hoping for, either. Mainly, they were too small. South Africans regularly farm on thousands of hectares. In Georgia, a few hundred hectares is a mammoth farm. "According to us, these are subeconomic units," a Delmas farmer named Frans Venter explained to me.

Such disappointments commonly follow encouraging starts. Last year, the World Bank sent researchers to follow up on the decade's high-profile farmland acquisitions, most of them in Africa. It found much of the land lying fallow years after the development deals had been inked. Mozambique was typical: between 2004 and 2009, 2.7-million hectares of farmland were leased or sold to investors; in 2009, at least 50% of the planned projects hadn't got off the ground or were trailing far behind their original blueprints.

The World Bank concluded that deals needed to be analysed hard-headedly for their economic viability. Just because a patch of soil is cheap doesn't mean a farm will flourish there. There must be infrastructure, access to markets, a state that allows for reasonably transparent business transactions. Expectations could also be a problem.

These days, we imagine solutions to complex challenges can come overnight. But farms can take generations to establish. They rely on natural processes that resist artificial abbreviation, such as the wheeling of the seasons and the gestation of baby animals.

"We are expecting abundant food," the government of Congo said. But by when? The South Africans headed there hope to restore Congo's terribly depleted cattle stock, but that will take years of breeding.

In Georgia, the farmers on my tour were startled to find that certain problems they had come to think of as peculiar to Africa also existed in Eastern Europe. Surveying the Georgian countryside, Frans Venter realised that, to quilt together a plot big enough to farm, "you'd have to work something out with the villagers" who own bits and pieces of land. He shook his head. "It's the same as South Africa."

But, of course, the benefits farmers are looking for when they seek new pastures outside South Africa are not only economic. They are also emotional -- which doesn't necessarily make them unreasonable.

Most people want to know they are doing good with their lives. They yearn to see this confirmed not only in their bank balances, but also in the responses and the acknowledgements of the people around them. As a result of South Africa's history, there is a general social understanding here that commercial farmers, although perhaps by now an economically necessary evil, are leading a lifestyle that is at least latently exploitative.

The farmers who go to Congo or Georgia hear the exact opposite message: they will be received as handymen, as appreciated experts, even as redeemers. Observing South African farmers in Georgia, it seemed to me that the chance to put on the robes of the healer could be, for the white South African accustomed to thinking of his broader social role as a destructive one, an incredibly powerful and healing experience.

Van Zyl passionately looked forward to putting on sheep-slaughtering demos for Georgian butchers, so somebody could benefit from the knowledge about sheep he had built up over a lifetime. His aide, Ben Stander, showed me a laptop full of technical soil analysis he wanted the Georgian government to take for free. Cultural wisdom must circulate in a society like blood in a body, and it was as if a plug that prevents Van Zyl and Stander from freely passing on their heritage in South Africa had broken loose; their sense of relief and pleasure was palpable.

Francois Venter (no relation to Frans) and his wife Juanita told me they wanted to invest in Georgia even if the agricultural opportunities turned out not to be so hot. Francois might get into construction, to improve the local architecture. "Those crappy buildings?" he said, flinging his arm around a Georgian official and pointing to some of the loathed Soviet-era apartment blocks. "I want to push them down to the ground!"

"Great!" said the Georgian official gamely.

Juanita had been shaken by how grey Georgia looked, especially the cities. So she had started thinking of a florist shop. "I want to give them flowers so they'll see things are pretty, still," she said. "I think if there's colour around them, they'll feel happier."

Eve Fairbanks is an American writer living in South Africa as a fellow of the Institute of Current World Affairs

http://mg.co.za/article/2011-06-24-g...farmers-minds/

[Kokoity]

[Kokoity]

White South African farmers seek new life in Georgia
JULY 23, 2011
A long way from his South African birthplace, amid the sweeping wheat fields of eastern Georgia, farmer Piet Kemp says that he has found a new home in this former Soviet republic.

And if the government gets its wish, hundreds more like Kemp will follow to help revive Georgia's ailing agricultural sector, bringing in both cash and expertise.

Shaken by violent attacks and reforms to transfer land to blacks in South Africa, many white farmers have been emigrating, and 10 have already relocated to Georgia to set up businesses under a programme launched by the government.

Kemp was the first of them to make the move, lured by local business opportunities -- and the promise of security.

"I do not want to live in constant fear," the 67-year-old said emotionally as he recalled the widespread killings of other white farmers in South Africa.

"We tried to defend our rights, but we lost this war."

When the apartheid system ended in 1994, 87 per cent of commercial farms belonged to the white minority, including Boers like Kemp, descendants of Dutch settlers who arrived in South Africa in the 17th century.

Discontent grew among Boers after the government started to redistribute farmlands in an attempt to counter apartheid-era discrimination.

Amid the violence, Kemp said that he felt he had no choice but to leave.

"In Georgia there is no violence, the crime rate is extremely low. So I will never go back," Kemp declared, comparing the situation here to the high violent crime rates back home, which include some 46 murders a day.

He sold his farm in South Africa's Mpumalanga province, was given Georgian citizenship and in March this year rented 700 hectares (1,730 acres) of land in the village of Sartichala, where he now cultivates maize and wheat.

"I moved to Georgia because I see tremendous opportunities here -- there is a good climate, fertile soil and a good market," he said.

Georgian Diaspora Minister Mirza Davitaia, who is in charge of the scheme, said "it is a very important investment initiative."

"Serious capital will be invested in Georgia's agricultural sector."

South African farmers, he said, "will bring in their skills, experience and technology."

A website, www.boers.ge, was set up to attract interest, and Davitaia said he believed that the 10 South African farmers who have already moved to Georgia will be followed by hundreds of other Boers.

But near Kemp's land in the village of Sartichala, some Georgian farmers said that the authorities should be supporting them ahead of foreign immigrants.

"I have nothing against Boers, but our government should first care about its citizens. Georgian villages, Georgian agriculture and Georgian peasants have been neglected for decades," said one of them, Tengo Paatashvili.

Others said however that they would be grateful for any help in revitalising the country's agricultural sector.

"Whoever comes to Georgia with good intentions is welcome. There is plenty of land in the country that is going to waste," said farmer Lado Aladashvili.

The authorities need all the help they can get, because although Georgian land is incredibly fertile and a large proportion of its population works in agriculture, more than 80 per cent of foodstuffs are imported, fuelling drastic food-price inflation.

Georgia was once one of the larders of the Soviet Union, renowned for its citrus fruits, grapes, nuts and tea, but the amount of cultivated land has diminished by 43 per cent over the last seven years.

A hasty privatisation programme after independence in the 1990s aided the decline, when small plots of state-owned land were handed to millions of farmers, saving them from starvation but creating an inefficient subsistence farming system.

"Georgia has real potential to become a net exporter of agricultural products: fruits, vegetables, meat and cattle," said agriculture expert David Shervashidze.

"The main challenge is the lack of funds, both domestic and foreign investments."

Earlier this year, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili called for large-scale modernisation to turn the country's "mediaeval agriculture sector into the agriculture of the 21st century" and make it a major source of income.

The plan to attract Boer farmers to relocate to this distant ex-Soviet state is part of Saakashvili's vision, but although their numbers may turn out to be small, they could make a difference, expert Shervashidze suggested.

"They are the world's best farmers. They bring in cash, create new jobs and set up efficient businesses," he said.

At his new farm in Sartichala, Kemp is now getting ready for his family to rejoin him.
He has made friends with locals, is learning the Georgian language and is even thinking of converting to the national religion, Orthodox Christianity.

"I came to Georgia to be a Georgian," he said.

http://georgiandaily.com/index.php?o...1680&Itemid=74

[Kokoity]

Georgia offers potential for SA farmers: TAU SA

TAU SA general manager Bennie van Zyl said an additional 15 farmers were still in the process of emigrating to this former Soviet republic to share information on agricultural practices in SA.

"Our primary objective is to share expertise, so that the country could be productive on a commercial basis. We develop a practical model that would produce better yields. That is a fairly drawn out process," Van Zyl said.

The Transvaal Agricultural Union SA (TAU SA) said on Thursday that about five South African commercial farmers had relocated to Georgia in Europe since a memorandum of understanding was entered into between the union and the Georgian government last year.

TAU SA general manager Bennie van Zyl said an additional 15 farmers were still in the process of emigrating to this former Soviet republic to share information on agricultural practices in SA.

"Our primary objective is to share expertise, so that the country could be productive on a commercial basis. We develop a practical model that would produce better yields. That is a fairly drawn out process," Van Zyl said.

He said the union continued to receive interest from SA farmers who wanted to set up shop in the country through the website called www.boers.ge.

Van Zyl said Georgia offered tax and other benefits for commercial farmers. "The country offers lots of opportunities for South African farmers," he said.

http://www.businesslive.co.za/southa...farmers-tau-sa

[Kokoity]

ГОСМИНИСТР ГРУЗИИ ПО ВОПРОСАМ ДИАСПОР ПРОДОЛЖАЕТ ОФИЦИАЛЬНЫЙ ВИЗИТ В ЮАР
Госминистр Грузии по вопросам диаспор Мирза (Папуна) Давитая находится с официальным визитом в ЮАР. По информации аппарата госминистра, в ходе встреч в ЮАР обсуждаются вопросы привлечения инвестиций в Грузию, а также сотрудничества и обмена опытом и информацией в сферах туризма и сельского хозяйства.

В аппарате отмечают, что П.Давитая уже провел ряд встреч с южноафриканскими бизнесменами, заинтересованными во вложении инвестиций в Грузии. В рамках визита он присутствовал на конгрессе Национального аграрного союза ЮАР.

6 сентября в Кейптауне П.Давитая и члены грузинской делегации встретились с представителями компании "Farmsecure", которая считается одним из крупнейших экспортеров ЮАР и самым крупным производителем удобрений.

"Ежегодный оборот компании "Farmsecure" составляет 500 миллионов долларов. 27 процентов экспорта фруктов компании выходит на европейский рынок. Компания также занимается страхованием урожая и финансированием сельского хозяйства", – отмечают в аппарате госминистра.

В аппарате заявляют, что руководство "Farmsecure" заинтересовалось инвестиционным и деловым климатом в Грузии, в связи с чем, намерено направить в Грузию в октябре специального представителя. "Farmsecure" также проявило интерес к приобретению в Грузии минералов, необходимых для производства удобрений.

Напомним, что 18 августа 2010 года между правительством Грузии и Национальным аграрным союзом ЮАР был подписан меморандум о взаимопонимании. Позднее Грузию посетили 100 фермеров из ЮАР, из которых 15 зарегистрировали в Грузии свой бизнес, а несколько южноафриканских фермеров с целью осуществления более крупных инвестиций в Грузии создали консорциум.

http://pik.tv/ru/news/story/18290-go...y-vizit-v-iuar

[Kokoity]

Afrikaner Farmers Migrating to Georgia
James Brooke | Sartichala, Georgia

South African farmer Piet Kemp inspecting baby corn in Sartichala, Georgia, July 28, 2011.
A South African court on September 12 convicted Julius Malema, president of the African National Congress Youth League, of hate speech for singing "shoot the Boer, kill the Boer" at a rally last year. But some Boers (white South African farmers) say they have had enough of violence and racial tension in South Africa and are planning to move out. VOA's James Brooke visited one Afrikaner who started farming this year in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia.

Piet Kemp's family farmed in southern Africa for four centuries. But now at age 66, this Afrikaner farmer has traded South Africa's Eastern Transvaal for Eastern Georgia. Here, he is reviving wheat and corn production on what was once a Soviet collective farm. Kemp says he has no regrets:

"I have a new life here," said Kemp. "I try to make friends with all the people in Georgia, learning their culture. I have been here since 3rd of March, and I have not heard of one murder in Georgia in this time. I didn't hear about any bank robbery. I didn't hear about any one hijacking."

It was not just high crime rates that prompted Kemp to leave South Africa. "There is no security of land, absolutely no security of land in South Africa," Kemp added.

Kemp said that over the last decade he successfully helped hundreds of white farmers hold on to their farmland in face of legal challenges from black farm workers and squatters. But now, he says white farmers face threats of farm seizures by ANC Youth League President Julius Malema and other politicians.

"With a huge leader like Malema, he can go up and stand and say to anyone I want this land for South Africa, for the future of South Africa," Kemp explained. "He can take just what he wants. For me, I just say no."

Georgia is playing on these insecurities, actively recruiting Afrikaner farmers to help revive the nation's moribund agriculture. In the 20 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, half of Georgia's farmland has gone out of production.

"They have done exceptionally great job over the years in South Africa, and to give them an opportunity to do the same thing here and for Georgian farmers to learn from the experience they will receive from their new neighbors, from the South African farmers," said Georgia's Canada-educated Economy Minister, Vera Kobalia.

Kobalia praises Sandra Roelofs, the Dutch-born wife of Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, for promoting the program. Dutch is the mother language of Afrikaans.

"It helped in terms of making them feel more secure in Georgia," Kobalia noted. "There is definitely that connection, the Holland connection in Georgia."

South African farmer Piet Kemp inspects grain seed in Sartichala, Georgia, July 28, 2011.Kemp says that Georgia's Dutch-speaking first lady impressed a visiting group of Afrikaner farmers last year.

"Sandra, she was touring a week with us," said Kemp. "We pick[ed] grapes together. We spoke Netherlands."

Kemp is a devout Protestant and feels a strong connection to Georgia's overwhelmingly Christian Orthodox population.

"We believe in the same thing, believe in the same God," said Kemp.

Kemp says he and other Afrikaner pioneers feel welcome. But Mariam Jorjadze, who runs a farmers' aid organization, worries that the 10 Afrikaner families here now could lead to a big influx of foreign farm directors. As in the Soviet days, Georgian farmers could again be reduced to laborers on big industrial farms.

"If the trend will be many South Africa farmers coming and there will tendency to convert people in rural areas again into labor force for foreign investors, I don't think that this system is viable. It resembles the former Soviet system," said Jorjadze.

Kemp believes that Afrikaners will help jump start Georgian agriculture. But he cautions that they must integrate into Georgian society.

"We must go into Georgia as Georgians - in Georgian culture, in Georgian language - so that they see us as Georgians, not as South Africans coming to Georgia," Kemp explained.

Kemp adds that he does not want his new life in Georgia to be like his old life in South Africa, where he was part of a successful minority envied by the majority population.

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/...129900258.html

[The Texas Ranger]

I wish them luck.

[Kokoity]

Буры заинтересовались вложением инвестиций в сушильное хозяйство зерновых в Абаше

20/10/2011
Южноафриканские фермеры - буры заинтересовались вложением инвестиций в сушильное хозяйство зерновых в Абаше. Хозяйство им показал госминистр Грузии по вопросам диаспоры Папуна Давитая.

По его пояснениям, буры уже осуществили определенные инвестиции в Грузию. По словам госминистра, они заинтересовались предприятием и вырази желание вложить в него свои средства.

«В Грузию уже прибыло несколько десятков южноафриканских фермеров, которые активно ведут свою деятельность. Они заинтересованы разными сферами. Ежедневно, все больше буров интересуются Грузией и приезжают сюда. В экономику Грузии, от них уже вошло несколько миллионов», - отметил Давитая.

http://bizzone.info/agriculture/2011/1319157233.php

[Kokoity]

Group of journalists from South African states visits Georgia
02.11.11
A group of leading journalists from South African states are visiting Georgia. For the next few days, the journalists will be familiarized with the reforms carried out by Georgian government in recent years and observe the work of several state structures.
The journalists will prepare reportages on Georgia and its culture after they return to their countries. The journalists have already held with the State Minister for Diaspora Affairs Papuna Davitaia.
They will tour Kakheti Region after meetings with other senior officials.

http://rustavi2.com/news/news_text.p...main&ct=0&wth=

[Kokoity]

South African farmers moving to Georgia to Farm

[Kokoity]

South African farmers have imported to Georgia 10 million lari
30/12/2011

South African farmers in 2011 were imported into Georgia cash equivalent to 10 million GEL. This figure is given in the report of the apparatus of state minister for Diaspora affairs at the year end. Total this year moved to Georgia about 120 farmers from South Africa, of which 25 have already registered their business. "Probability of major investments from South Africa in 2012 is high, as Georgia, along with farmers, and interested in South African entrepreneurs. About 10 farmers in 2012 are going to start business in Georgia ", - says the report.

Южноафриканские фермеры ввезли в Грузию 10 млн. лари
30/12/2011

Южноафриканские фермеры в 2011 году ввезли в Грузию наличность, эквивалентную 10 млн. лари. Эта цифра приводится в отчете аппарата госминистра по делам диаспоры по итогам уходящего года. Всего в нынешнем году в Грузию переселились около 120 фермеров из Южной Африки, 25 из которых уже зарегистрировали свой бизнес.

«Вероятность осуществления крупных инвестиций из Южной Африки в 2012 году велика, поскольку Грузией, наряду с фермерами, заинтересовались и южноафриканские предприниматели. Около 10 фермеров в 2012 году собираются начать в Грузии бизнеса», - говорится в отчете.

http://bizzone.info/agriculture/2011/1325266832.php

http://www.ekhokavkaza.com/content/news/24437854.html

[Kokoity]

The Boers in Georgia - profitable relocation
12/19/2011 Alexander. R 460 92 2

At the end of August 2010 the Minister for Diaspora Affairs of Georgia and the South African farmers' organizations signed a memorandum. His main point is to offer transwaalsian farmers to move and take their agricultural business in Georgia. It is assumed that, as at home, drills in Georgia will be engaged in wine production and animal husbandry. The first farmer from South Africa, which received Georgian citizenship, was William de Klerk.

Project Manager to relocate the Boers Juba Maruashvili claims that are currently in Georgia, moved to South Africa for 5 farmers with their families, writes news agency Kazakhstan-Grain. - How successful is the project relocation drills in Georgia? - First, the project involves no physical relocation drills in Georgia, while imports of capital, expertise, innovative approaches to agricultural development. The project started in October 2010 when the first delegation of South African farmers visited Georgia in the Fact Finding Mission. They explored the country, culture and structure of agriculture, political and economic system and, most importantly, the investment climate, and then decided that Georgia - a country where they see their future as farmers. After the first visit, we organized another 3 agrotura in Georgia, where he attended more than 70 farmers. They traveled around the country and studied the quality of the land. After these tours South African farmers have decided to invest in Georgia. There is now some investors who have already started their activities. For them, it is important partnership with Georgian farmers, whose experience they consider valuable. The major problems of Georgian farmers, which complicate the development of farming as a business, the Boers believe the lack of modern technology and small scale activities. - On what terms the Boers want to get the land in Georgia - in the long-term lease or private property? - Investors are discussing all the options. They create a company, start a business, including buying land. In the case of large investments Georgian leadership award them citizenship of Georgia, which happens in other areas of investment. - And what of these options is preferable to Georgia? - For Georgia, the benefit of every sentence, which contributes to the development of agriculture and help farmers get back on the Georgian feet and develop their business. Any transaction between the investor and the government only helps to achieve the goal and the goal is to help Georgia's farmers to turn agriculture into a business. - What layer of the citizens of South Africa is the main part of the Boers, who wished to move to Georgia? - Misc. For example, there are some farmers who had moved to Georgia and see themselves as part of our country. But there is a category of farmers who, despite the difficult conditions in South Africa, continues its activities there, but see their future in Georgia, and invest in our country. - They come to Georgia with real money or just with his rich skills? - South African farmers to invest financial capital with intellectual. They carry out real investment by buying land or investing their money in different areas of Agriculture of Georgia. - Which investments are expected to move from the Boers? - We expect an adequate amount required for the development of Georgian agriculture. There is a real investment process that develops gradually. - How many farmers in South Africa, according to your data, have already started farming in Georgia this year? - actively working for more than 5 farmers who, in addition to core activities, looking for partners among Georgian farmers and continue to visit farms in other parts of the country. - Perhaps you've come to watch them work. What innovations are discovered? - pleasant surprise is that their entire business is based on research in science, for innovative technologies. This is exactly what you need to Georgian farmers. And we hope that our farmers will actively borrow their positive experience. - And what a positive experience of Georgian farmers can adopt right now? - Innovative approaches to making decisions based on science and research, using new information and new technologies. Only this approach will strengthen Georgia's farmers and Georgian agriculture, in which South African investors see huge potential.

original source:

Буры в Грузии - выгодное переселение
19.12.2011Alexander. R460922

В конце августа 2010 года министр по делам диаспор Грузии и Организация фермеров ЮАР подписали меморандум. Его главным пунктом является предложение трансваальским фермерам переселиться и перенести свой сельскохозяйственный бизнес в Грузию. Предполагается, что, как и на родине, буры в Грузии будут заниматься виноделием и животноводством. Первым фермером из ЮАР, получившим грузинское гражданство, стал Вильям де Клерк.

Менеджер проекта по переселению буров Джуба Маруашвили утверждает, что в настоящее время в Грузию переехало уже 5 южноафриканских фермеров со своими семьями, пишет ИА Казах-Зерно.

- Насколько успешно идет реализация проекта переселения буров в Грузию?

- Во-первых, проект подразумевает не физическое переселение буров в Грузию, а импорт их капитала, опыта, инновационных подходов к развитию сельского хозяйства. Реализация проекта началась в октябре 2010 года, когда первая делегация южноафриканских фермеров посетила Грузию в рамках Fact Finding Mission. Они исследовали страну, культуру, структуру сельского хозяйства, политическую и экономическую систему и, самое главное, инвестиционный климат, после чего решили, что Грузия - это страна, где они видят свое будущее в качестве фермеров. После первого визита мы организовали еще 3 агротура в Грузию, где участвовали более 70 фермеров. Они путешествовали по стране и изучали качество земли.

После этих туров южноафриканские фермеры решили инвестировать в Грузию. В стране сейчас находится несколько инвесторов, которые уже начали свою деятельность. Для них важно партнерство с грузинскими фермерами, чей опыт они считают очень ценным. Главными проблемами грузинских фермеров, которые усложняют развитие фермерства, как бизнеса, буры считают отсутствие современных технологий и малые масштабы деятельности.

- На каких условиях буры хотят получить земли в Грузии - в долгосрочную аренду или в частную собственность?

- Инвесторы обсуждают все варианты. Они создают компании, начинают бизнес, в том числе, покупают земли. В случае широких инвестиционных вложений грузинское руководство награждает их гражданством Грузии, что случается и в других сферах инвестиций.

- А какой из этих вариантов предпочтителен для Грузии?

- Для Грузии выгодно каждое предложение, которое способствует развитию сельского хозяйства и помогает грузинским фермерам встать на ноги и развивать свой бизнес. Любая сделка между инвесторами и государством только помогает достичь цели, а целью является помочь грузинским фермерам превратить сельское хозяйство в бизнес.

- Какую прослойку граждан ЮАР представляет основная часть буров, пожелавших переехать в Грузию?

- Разные. Например, есть несколько фермеров, которые переехали в Грузию и считают себя частью нашей страны. Но есть категория фермеров, которая, несмотря на сложные условия в Южной Африке, продолжает там свою деятельность, но при этом видят свое будущее в Грузии и инвестируют в нашу страну.

- Они приезжают в Грузию с реальными деньгами или только со своими богатыми навыками?

- Южноафриканские фермеры инвестируют финансовый капитал вместе с интеллектуальным. Они осуществляют реальные инвестиции, покупая земли или вкладывая свой капитал в разные сферы сельского хозяйства Грузии.

- Какие объемы инвестиций ожидаются от переезда буров?

- Мы ожидаем адекватных объемов, необходимых для развития грузинского сельского хозяйства. Идет реальный инвестиционный процесс, который поэтапно развивается.

- Сколько фермеров из ЮАР, по Вашим данным, уже приступили к обработке земли в Грузии в этом году?

- Активно работают уже более 5 фермеров, которые, помимо основной деятельности, ищут партнеров среди грузинских фермеров и продолжают посещать фермы в других частях страны.

- Наверно Вы уже успели понаблюдать за их работой. Какие новшества открыли для себя?

- Приятно удивляет то, что вся их деятельность основана на результатах исследований, на науке, на инновационных технологиях. Это как раз то, что нужно грузинским фермерам. И мы надеемся, что наши фермеры будут активно заимствовать их положительный опыт.

- А какой положительный опыт грузинские фермеры могут перенять уже сейчас?

- Инновационные подходы, принятие решений на основе науки и исследований, использование новой информации и новых технологий. Только такой подход усилит грузинских фермеров и грузинское сельское хозяйство, в котором южноафриканские инвесторы видят огромный потенциал.

http://www.newsland.ru/news/detail/id/846543/

[Kokoity]

[Kokoity]

SA farming skills are sought-after
By: Emily van Rijswijck
16 Jan 2012
The know-how and experience of South African farmers is becoming an important and sought after commodity in itself. Increasingly these farmers are being approached by foreign governments wishing to tap into their agricultural skills and years of experience.

Farmer Piet Kemp preparing the soil for grain on his new farm near Tbilisi. Kemp farms jointly with a partner. (Image: Bennie van Zyl, Tau SA)
The latest exchange has seen five farmers moving to Georgia in Eastern Europe over the course of 2011, while almost 800 South African farmers have already moved or extended their farms into Mozambique.

Further afield, the governments of Congo-Brazzaville and Zambia have also started making overtures to both South African and Zimbabwean farmers, as these countries have plans to get grand scale food production off the ground.

The impoverished former Soviet state entered into an agreement with South Africa in 2010, and hopes to see many more South African farmers settling there in the near future.

The exchange has taken place at the initial invitation of the Georgian government through its Minister of Diaspora, Papuna Davitaia,with the collaboration of the Transvaal Agricultural Union South Africa (Tau SA).

Georgia plans to bring its agricultural sector back up to global commercial standards after years of communist rule.

The country has one of the oldest winemaking histories in the world but has been struggling for the last 21 years, since becoming independent, to lift its agricultural sector from the current subsistence farming to commercial farming levels. The main export products are wine and hazelnuts.

The South African farmers will bring their years of experience in cattle farming and the growing of cereal crops on large tracts of land to Georgia.

"The state owns agricultural land in each of the 10 provinces and wishes to sell such land to commercial farmers," confirms Tau SA's GM, Bennie van Zyl. He said about 80 000 hectares of state property is available, not all of it suitable for farming, but that private farms are also readily available.

In general, soil is much cheaper than in South Africa but Van Zyl predicts that once Georgia joins the European Union, as it hopes to do in the near future, the value of these water-rich farm properties will escalate considerably.

First harvests already in

Already the first grain and maize cultivated by a South African have been harvested in Georgia. Sixty-seven-year-old Piet Kemp, who arrived in Georgia in March 2011, has harvested grain which was in the fields when he arrived, planted and harvested a crop of maize, and despite floods and hail, still managed a reasonable crop in the same year.

He has once more planted grain, which in these cold parts is sowed just before the first snow falls, and now awaits a good crop when spring arrives. In an interview on ABN Digital, Kemp said he plans to become a Georgian citizen in time.

"I just want to be a farmer and produce food," he said.

However, life is not without challenges in this new country. While the climate near Tbilisi, the Georgian capital where Kemp farms, is surprisingly similar to what he is used to in the colder Highveld region of Mpumalanga province, the language and alphabet is certainly not. To overcome this, Kemp requires an interpreter constantly at his side and, while his work force is for the most enthusiastic and up to the task, the negative impact of socialism and communism on the country has been debilitating.

"The ability to be an entrepreneur has literally been destroyed during the 70 years under Soviet rule. It's a poor, hurt country," adds Van Zyl.

In an effort to fast-track the project, the Georgian government has also requested the services of an advisory committee of three South African agricultural experts to assist them for a period of between three months and one year with the project.

South Africans do not need a visa for Georgia. Van Zyl says in total about 25 South African farmers are in one way or another already involved in helping to develop the country, while many more have shown interest.

Surprisingly, Georgia also shares some past history with South Africa in the shape of Prince Niko Bagrationi, a Georgian aristocrat who so strongly associated with the Boers' cause that he volunteered and fought against the British during the second Boer War (1899 - 1902).

On a recent visit to Georgia, a delegation of South African farmers was on hand to open a museum dedicated to Bagrationi and his many escapades.

http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/475/69296.html

[Kokoity]

[Kokoity]

http://www.ecmi.de/uploads/tx_lfpubd...ersion_Eng.pdf