Community Cultivation of Honeybush

In 2020, Parceval was granted funds by the BioInnovation Africa programme to set up a dedicated and consistent quality supply of Honeybush (Cyclopia species) for extract development. As part of the project 2 communities have been supported to grow additional Honeybush.

In the Eastern Cape, Harkerville Agri and Forestry products already had a small plantation of approximately half a hectare in size. In September this year, 2000 Cyclopia seedlings were purchased from Sonneskyn Nursery and 1500 were donated to the Harkerville community. A further 0.1 hectare was added to the existing plantation through this.

In Kranshoek, ±500 seedlings were donated to Ericaville Farming Trust. Ericaville suffered a fire in 2017 where they lost their Honeybush plantation. Subsequently, however, Honeybush has come up naturally in amongst other fynbos plants – similar to semi cultivation – with fewer plants per hectare than is usual in a plantation. The donated seedlings were planted out amongst the natural stand wherever there were gaps.

In October, Honeybush was harvested from the existing plantations at Harkerville and Ericaville and was processed into green Honeybush. Samples were sent to our European client for sensory analysis and brix content. If the samples have the desired quality, then off take agreements will be signed with the communities for their future Honeybush harvests.