"Hard work, lots of sweat and help from above have all contributed to my farming success. I also feel that the training supplied has played an important part in changing the way I farm.  Establishing a vineyard is a very costly thing. If it weren't for the training and better farming methods we have been taught, all these costs would have made farming an even more difficult way of life than it is now..." Gerrit Coetzee, Eksteenskuil raisin farmer

The Eksteenskuil Farmers Association is a group of small-scale farmers living in the arid Orange River region of South Africa, near the Kalahari Desert. Farming provides a very marginal income in the region; many of the crops which can readily grow in the local conditions are economically unviable. Grape growing can provide better income for farmers, but in order to plant vines they need training and financial assistance as it takes three years before they can harvest their first crop.

With many of the local farmers carrying debts, it has been very difficult for any of them to get ahead. By organizing themselves into an association, and with the benefit of training assistance from another local company, the group is now able to see financial benefits from the sale of their dried raisins into the fair trade market. Sales of raisins now provides valuable additional revenue for its members, and is allowing them to both take home better incomes and also to further expand their grape production. Social premiums have also been used to purchase equipment for general use.

"The premium through fair trade is still definitely making a difference. With this new equipment we have bought, we are helping a lot of people - those that have vines and also those that don't"  Albie Adams, vice-chairman of the Eksteenskuil Farmers Association.