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Meet the team

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Keith Mc Laren 

Founder and owner of SA Jaggery 

 

My father Eric was a returning WW2 soldier who was allocated (for a small fee) 125 acres on the Umfolosi river flood plain and a 20 acre house site on the high ground north of the river. Together these ex soldiers pioneered this area and built a sugar mill (now USM) and turned the Umfolosi flood plain into one of the most productive sugarcane growing areas in the country. It was tough going in the beginning with planted fields having to be guarded at night with armed guards shooting the hippo and wild bush pigs which would dig up the newly planted sweet stalks to feed on.

 

I grew up on the farm  hunting and fishing with the local Zulus  and quickly learned the Zulu language so much so that the local school would not enrolled me until I had learned more English and I was sent home.

 

After University I worked for a multinational agricultural products company and travelled to many of the sugarcane growing countries of  the world.I later started an International sugarcane consultancy business and began 

offering agricultural products and services (fertiliser and herbicides) to sugarcane  growing individuals and  organisations.

 

I also started a contracting business to help small scale farmers to get their sugarcane to the local sugar mill.Small scale farms are the furtherest from the Mill and so they incur the greatest costs to get their cane to the Mill.

Many of these farmers are marginal and many are not viable.

 

 I clearly heard God say to me to go India and see and learn from the hundreds of thousand small scale Indian cane farmers who crush their cane on site and make a healthy unrefined raw sugar (full of vitamins and minerals). My wife and I visited India in 2016 and with the kind cooperation of the Indian Sugar Research Institute (Lucknow) began our journey of discovery into the wonder of making this healthy sugar called Jaggery.

 

Jaggery is a house hold name in India and the preferred sweetener used in most homes because of its many health benefits.We visited many small jaggery production units and were amazed and the friendliness and openess of the producers to share their knowledge of how to make jaggery.

 

I returned in November 2019  with Graham Pye (Engineer) to concentrate on the design and construction of the very first SA jaggery plant for South Africa.This time we collaborated with the University of Agricultural Sciences (Bengaluru).

 

Today 2023 we have designed and constructed our first SA Jaggery plant  at Monzi in northern Kwazulu Natal crushing local small scale farmers sugarcane and  producing a fine quality Jaggery for our local market. Many 

tons of Jaggery are imported annually at great cost by Indian Importers and we are now focussing on suppling these importers with locally made high quality Jaggery.At the same time we are developing a local African market by educating consumers on the many health benefits of using Jaggery as their preferred sweetener.

 

We are engaging with many small scale sugarcane farmers in our area and are using the FARMING GODS WAY principals ( no ploughing no burning and using Gods (trash) blanket as mulch to prevent the use of chemical herbicides and to encourage earthworms and microbes to multiply and incrementally  improve the potential of the soil. We will register these small scale growers as organic sugar cane producers and eventually make certified organically grown and organically processed Jaggery.

 

These small scale farmers will be be doubling their income and producing a healthier sweetener (Diabetes is a major problem amongst especially the African people). The vision is to use the SA jaggery facility in Monzi as a training base to establish many more jaggery plants throughout the South African (60000) small scale farmers growing area.This will have the added benefit of creating many much needed jobs in the rural areas.

 

Jaggery is a tool to disciple families to create jobs to pay farmers significantly more to produce a healthier alternative sugar.

Graham Pye

Head of SA Jaggery’s Technical and Operations

 

Background - once upon a time there was a young engineer who joined the corporate world to do “technical-magic” that engineers are trained to do - apply the laws of science to overcame challenges and create opportunities, in the realm of industrial gases and LPG. With time this engineer found new fields that presented intrigue and wonder to try his hand in: logistics, operations and management. Eventually it was time to jump ship from the corporate world to join the world of consulting  to provide technical and economic solutions to a diverse array of clients, particularly in energy related fields.

 

With time, and a revelation of the calling on his life, Graham’s desire has become one to use his experiences and skills to uplift communities holistically through partnering with them in business, and recognising their uniqueness and value so that through working together mutual benefit can be attained.

 

The jaggery project is such a project where we are able to apply the “supply chain of good” methodology to helping others. We start by training and mentoring small scale rural farmers how to grow sugar cane organically, to provide these farmers with better revenues, to create multiple small plants, employing more local people, to organically process the cane into nutritious jaggery that has benefits to consumers.

 

The jaggery project is about hearing God’s heart for people and using business as the tool to convey God’s love and wisdom to others by equipping them to rise up out of poverty by offering hope and purpose.

 

It's a privilege to be working alongside a group of passionate and skilled people who want to use their skills to transform communities.

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Joel Moonsamy

SA Jaggery's Production Supervisor 

 

I am married and have four beautiful children and three lovely grandchildren. 

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I come from a Christian background and I am currently an assistant Pastor at our near by church. I have worked in the sugar industry for roughly 45 years which has allowed me to gain an extensive amount of understanding and knowledge when it comes to any sugar products, production and so on. 

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I recently was introduced to an amazingly humble couple, Keith and Angela McLaren and that is where my SA Jaggery journey began. They discussed their new business called SA Jaggery and how this company not only produces Jaggery but also plays a huge role in uplifting the community - from then I knew I had to be apart of this amazing project. 

I have heard about Jaggery but I had never heard of anyone who produced it locally in South Africa. This made me extremely curious to know how exactly they were going about producing Jaggery - right on our doorstep.

 

Given my 45 years in the sugar industry, I have had an extensive amount of experience when it comes to any type of sugar or sugar products. But even with all the experience I received from my training at the Industrial Training centre in Mount Edgecombe in Sugar Manufacturing. Jaggery was something new and something I immediately wanted to get involved in.

 

It has been a great privilege for me to be a part of the SA Jaggery team as well as be able to fulfil my role as Production Supervisor, ensuring that the production of our Jaggery plant as well as the product we produce is of the highest quality for our consumers.

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Deryn Burns

Head of Marketing for SA Jaggery's 

 

   

Growing up on a farm in the KZN Midlands Deryn has always been in touch with the agricultural world and the production of food products. Her passion the beauty of nature has inspired her journey in the SA Jaggery family, and her perfectionist nature has driven her to strive for excellence and authenticity in the development of the Jaggery product range. With an enthusiastic interest in the understanding of health and the benefits of natural foods,

free of chemicals and additives, the development of this healthy alternative to sugar has been a

perfect fit.

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With a Bachelor of Commerce degree majoring in Marketing, as a solid academic base, Deryn drives the Marketing, Sales and Distribution of this exciting product. Having been heavily involved throughout her schooling career, which involved being part of numerous outreach projects and programmes and eventually led to her developing her own Charity for the less fortunate in our society. Deryn is well versed in the necessity of corporate business to be

involved in Corporate Social Investment Projects.

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The very nature of the Jaggery product is to source the raw cane from micro growers, who have been trained and mentored, to produce a chemical free pure cane using only natural production methods. These growers have all been assisted by SA Jaggery in many ways - from the actual purchase of the land, to the planting as well as the crop maintenance and harvesting that is needed to successfully grow their own sugarcane. This process has empowered large numbers of local micro farmers and their families and ties directly back to the SA Jaggery

company’s ethos of FARMING GODS WAY.

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Deryn is a highly motivated and compassionate person with a natural flair for marketing and the understanding of community and customer satisfaction. The protection of the health of her customers is the paramount driving force that drives her to bring you the best possible

healthier alternative to sweeten your lives.

Copyright 2024 SA Jaggery. All rights reserved.

 

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