Mpact re-affirms its commitment at Citrus Summit
19 May 2023
Mpact re-affirmed its commitment to South Africa’s citrus industry during the summit of the Citrus Growers Association (CGA) in Gqeberha recently. Speaking at the influential event, Mpact Corrugated MD Christoff Botha not only reiterated its support of the agricultural sector, but also highlighted several significant investments Mpact has made in support of its customers.
The CGA summit was attended by some 700 growers from across the country and featured South African rugby star Schalk Burger. His topic was team culture and dynamics, but the industry having faced waves of serious challenges including weather events, crime, rolling blackouts and logistical interruptions, the topic quickly turned to dealing with adversity.
“Schalk came back from serious injury, back to the world rugby stage,” said CGA CEO Justin Chadwick. “This is the resilience that needs to be tapped into by the citrus industry as it battles the headwinds brought about by many factors out of the control of industry players.”
During his presentation, Christoff Botha said Mpact recognised the crucial role it plays in the success of growers and especially in overcoming challenges. As such, the company has substantially expanded and honed its operations to customer needs.
“For more than 100 years, Mpact has supplied quality cartons with trust and integrity,” he said. “In early 2010s, we set about matching grower investments in agriculture. Today, our 10 manufacturing plants have more paper stock than ever, and customer supply is top of our list.”
“We’ve installed generators, solar panels and water tanks. In Gqeberha, a new corrugator was installed, and the factory was rebuilt in the past 12 months to create more space for supply, paper stock and finished cartons.”
“In the north, we’re in the second phase of enlarging our customer service centre to allow for even faster response to changing scheduling. Technology upgrades in the Western Cape allow us to do the same in this region.”
Christoff said that faith in the resilience of the agricultural industry led Mpact Paper to allocate R1.2-billion for supply of paper.
He concluded his presentation by saying that Mpact was grateful to be able to stand alongside growers. “We appreciate the chance to build long-term relationships in this space.”