Angelo Marman from Abitz farming

Tell us a little about yourself!

Im Angelo Marman, a kid from Mitchells Plain. Due to family drama, I moved away from Mitchells Plain at age 8 to a quiet place called Chatsworth. We went through tough times, but I always survived with great parents to guide me. They helped send me through varsity where I studied Agricultural Management and got into a company called PPECB in the Perishable export industry. I’m still working there 20 years later. At the same time, I started my AbitzFarming business from 5 Tilapia fish in the back of my house in Malmesbury. I bred fingerlings to make an extra income, while also selling fish food. This business grew to R25000, at which point I approached a then business partner to start growing vegetables on a piece of 2000m² land. We developed that land into a training centre for kids and small scale farmers to learn.

How did you start doing what you are doing now? 

AbitzFarming started about 6 years ago. We grew by renting a 2 hectare piece of land and started growing vegetables for Umthunzi. Back then Umthunzi was a packing and redistribution centre for produce supplying to local hubs and markets in Cape Town, which helped us a lot in those early days. With a great team we did well and eventually took on another 2 hectares. Today AbitzFarming is in the process of buying its own 8 hectare farm. We have already been farming on that site for more than a year, and it is going well.

The normal struggles are there and having no support to be able to buy the land makes it very difficult. Four million rand is not easy to come by, and we still looking for help to achieve this dream but slowly we do what we can. We acquired 1.8mil to put the first payment down!

What are you most proud of in this process? 

What I’m most proud of is when I look back and I am happy I didn’t give up. I used my own money and worked hard to accomplish a dream. It’s incredibly rewarding to see it be a success.

Without a great team, consistent and valued clients, and A Blessing from Above to keep us moving forward we would not of been where we are today. So my advice is if you have a vision set forth a mission to achieve it. Don’t give up. Most people don’t see what you see!

What is the most helpful piece of advice you received when you were just starting out? 

Nothing comes easy. Hard work and good networking pay off. A lazy person wont get anywhere in life.

What advice would you like to give to others who are younger/earlier on their journey? 

Start early...stop wasting time...strive to be an employer instead of an employee...SA has too few employers. Think carefully what you want in life and go for it.

Where do you see growing going in South Africa? 

This a scary one, because small scale farming its difficult without proper help and guidance. This is especially true when farmers depend on the farm for an income. Without proper market access, logistics, farm management processes and principles it’s doomed to fail. Big farmers will buy out smaller farmers.

In the Swartland we are busy establishing a farming community that will be the new farming hub of the Western cape. Currently we as AbitzFarming are busy in collaboration with Dept of Agriculture to develop the existing chicken coop into a packhouse where AbitzFarming will be a value adding tool for all the small-scale farming communities in the Swartland. Alongside this, we will be a processing plant for olive oil. We have a lot of other ideas! These will drastically improve job creation and availability. However, many of these ideas are still in process for approval. I’d also like to start a training centre for kids and small-scale farmers on the farm to add value to their existing farms and improve their livelihoods.