16 April 2024
Vito Rugani, the well-known carrot farmer who was a keynote speaker at the inaugural African Farming Agri-Development Imbizo, passed away yesterday afternoon.
African Farming has learned with great sadness of the passing of Vito Rugani, the legendary carrot farmer who is the founder and part owner of Green Way Farms and Rugani Juice.
While the family says they will provide more details later, the news of Rugani’s passing has been confirmed by his neighbour and mentee, Eric Mauwane of Oneo Farms, who has been under Rugani’s mentorship since he started farming in Tarlton in 2012.
Mauwane, who featured in the African Farming TV series season 2 and magazine, said he received a phone call from Rugani’s partner, Vincent Sequeira, early this morning to break the news of his passing. Although still in shock, Mauwane paid a tribute to a legend who has played a crucial role in his farming career. “He was just not an ordinary person. We had a session late last week and he gave me homework, for which we had scheduled a feedback session later this week,” said Mauwane.
Although Rugani had largely retired, he recently shared his life lessons with commercial farmers at our recent Agri-Development Imbizo in Boksburg.
Rugani was still sleeping on the floor in a Hillbrow apartment in the early 1990s, but over 25 years he and his partner, Vincent Sequeira, became South Africa’s largest carrot producers.
After starting with a small mixed vegetable farm of 20 hectares, their operation now has 3 700 ha in Tarlton, Bokpoort in Limpopo and Christiana in the Free State, and produces 250 tons of carrots a day. Sequeira always oversaw the mechanical side of the farm, while Rugani focused on labour and economic issues.
Later, they opened a plant in Tarlton where more than 80 tons of carrots can be converted daily into 40 000 litres of juice.
The major turning point for Greenway Farms was when Rugani and Sequeira visited carrot farmers in Australia. After receiving good advice on finances and labour utilisation, they decided to focus solely on carrot production. Greenway Farms also took the lead with the first hydro-cooled carrots in South Africa.
The business is still largely in the hands of the two families. Rugani had six sons and two daughters, and Sequeira has five daughters and a son. One of Sequeira’s daughters, Anita Browne, was named Gauteng’s Young Farmer of the Year in 2019 due to her involvement in the farm.
African Farming extends its condolences to Rugani’s wife, Keme, the rest of the family and those involved in the farm.
In the video below, Rugani tells more about his extraordinary agricultural journey. The video was taken at the beginning of March during our African Farming Agri-Development Imbizo.
