OUR HISTORY
The home of the South African deciduous fruit grower.
Our roots date back to the Spring of 1652 when Jan van Riebeeck planted the first apple seeds in the Cape of Good Hope. On April 17, 1662, the first two ripe apples were picked. Gradually small farmers started to experiment with other top fruit crops and sold their produce to passing ships.
The South African fruit export industry was “founded” by Percy Molteno in 1892 when he successfully exported a small consignment of peaches to the United Kingdom, which was sold at Covent Garden Market. Hereafter, the fruit export market blossomed and by 1903 more than 22 000 fruit packages were being exported.
After years of exporting individually, the deciduous fruit producers realised they needed a governing body to offer support and the Deciduous Fruit Exchange (1926) was established. This was later adapted to the Deciduous Fruit Board (1939), Universal Fruit Trade Co-operative (1987), Unifruco (1989), Deciduous Fruit Producers’ Trust (1997) and ultimately HORTGRO (2013).
At HORTGRO we focus on production, research and technology, communication, markets, and transformation within the deciduous fruit industry. Download a timeline of our history here: 
