Food & Beverages


Several of South Africa’s biggest brands have facilities in KwaZulu-Natal.

Sugar, as one of the province’s most important agricultural products, is a very significant base supplier to the food and beverage industry in KwaZulu-Natal. The province’s varied soils and microclimates support a wide array of agricultural products and so the province also has a good variety of relevant manufacturing facilities.

One of the few sectors in South Africa not to be badly affected by the global economic downturn, food and beverages returned a year-on-year increase to the month of March 2009 of 7.8%. This is not unusual; when people stop spending on luxury items they spend proportionally more on food. As a percentage of provincial manufacturing value in KwaZulu-Natal, the sector represents 16% of the total. The food subsector is by far the biggest part of the sector within the province (84%), with an estimated value of R2.6-billion.

Clover SA announced in December 2009 that it was selling its 45% stake in yoghurt and dessert manufacturing joint venture Clover Danone to its erstwhile partner. Proceeds from the sale (slightly more than R1-billion) will be used to reduce debt and to move some of the company’s factories closer to its farms. Clover SA, a company with its roots in KwaZulu-Natal and with an annual turnover of more than R6-billion, makes milk powder at Estcourt and milk at Queensburgh.

One of Coca-Cola’s six South African manufacturing plants is located in Durban and it has a large bottling plant, run by Amalgamated Beverage Industries, at Phoenix. The Ceres Beverage Company has a plant in Durban and local bottled water company aQuelle employs about 140 people at its facility at Kranskop.

The South African Breweries plant at Prospecton is one of the biggest producers in the region, producing about 400 million litres of various beers. United National Breweries makes sorghum beer. Microbreweries have sprung up in recent years in places like the Midlands and Eshowe.














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