Blueberry grower creates youth employment in South Africa

United Exports is a global precision agri-company specialising in the class-leading OZblu® blueberries and has a large production and operational footprint in South Africa. In this initiative United Exports joins forces with the Youth Employment Service (YES). YES is a private-sector led, not-for-profit organisation that collaborates with government, through policy, to incentivise businesses to join the programme to create or sponsor jobs for unemployed youth.

United Exports has employed 15 young people between the ages of 21 and 33. Their new roles as quality officers on OZblu farms will afford them a springboard to launch into productive future careers.

Founder of United Exports, Roger Horak, comments, “When it comes to quality, our company has set its true north as #QualityRight. The OZblu Quality Officer Programme has been designed to fulfil an essential function in our ongoing journey of continuous improvement . The quality officers will record real-time quality data that is key to our feedback loops at every stage on the farms, supporting the production of top-quality OZblu blueberries and facilitating continuous improvement.”

Horak describes the company’s continuous improvement philosophy as OTO – an acronym for one touch objective, on time objective, on temperature objective and one task objective. “OTO has played a key role in creating awareness and driving our culture and process of continuous improvement and getting quality right across our end-to-end value chain.”

Horak is based in Australia but grew up in South Africa. He says, “I’ve always had a passion for sustainability, and doing what is right. We operate in the oldest industry and one of the most competitive sectors in the global economy, just as we put quality front and centre of what we do, so to we embrace both our obligations and opportunities to make a difference when it comes to ESG. Ultimately, we are also aiming to empower individuals and teams for the agricultural sector.”