Vision 2028: If you don’t disrupt your own business, something else will

Leading Through Innovation

After a long and in-depth evaluation and strategic review process, we have decided to fundamentally change our business and genetic model.

As the directors of the Taaibosch Group, a family-owned agri-business, we have always relied on our educational background as Industrial Engineers to make informed business decisions, supported by our love for farming and the African continent in which we operate. We aim to build a sustainable business which will leave a lasting legacy and impact on our industry and community. During times of high uncertainty and volatility, the importance of established business principles and core values is valuable when making strategic decisions.

Every three years, Gerda and I do a complete business review and analysis of our business model, business decisions, business partners, and working methods to better understand and explain our production and financial performances. The process we followed included an in-depth review of our industry, markets, and what other farmers in South Africa and internationally are doing and how they perform compared to us – “an investigative virtual world tour”.

We did a long-term analysis of the meat, grain, and agricultural markets together with the economic and climatic outlooks to arrive at a few findings and decisions:

• Both the pork and grain (feed) markets have fundamentally shifted and with the global economic and climate changes - the volatility and uncertainty will continue to keep margins under pressure but positive.

• We need to adapt our operations and ensure we are aligned with the future markets. If the markets are not making positive moves - then maybe we should.

• The African meat market is price-sensitive; we need to produce safe and healthy pork at the lowest possible cost to increase market share and margins.

• To remain profitable and sustainable, we need to improve the production performance and output of the commercial piggery without increasing production cost.

• To achieve our production goals by 2028, we need to adapt our working methods and activities to be completely focused and driven towards one common goal.

• To continuously align Industrial Engineering with Pig Farming, the Theory of Constraints, as found in the book “The Goal” by Eli Goldratt, has applicable principles to be implemented.

• Focused Simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication in a complicated world.

To achieve this, we made the decision to convert our business and genetic model from the current Taaibosch / Genesus purebred breeding Nucleus to bought-in Danbred genetics with a focused gilt unit and commercial piggery. We also decided to close down our long-established AI Station and Boar Breeding Units as all our terminal semen will be supplied by the Danbred Africa AI station. Over the next few months, we will start the transition process and aim to have a new streamlined production process by February 2026.

We chose Danbred for a few reasons after we carefully evaluated the available genetic suppliers in South Africa by using both a quantitative and qualitative decision matrix which included a small on-farm trial on terminal semen. We believe that the strategic vision of Taaibosch and Danbred Africa is aligned in a way that will benefit our business, our clients, and most importantly, the pork consumers. The Danbred Duroc is known for excellent growth, feed conversion ratio, and meat quality, which is a trait Taaibosch has been known for and aims to expand on.

To implement the new direction, we will launch Vision 2028 on 1 April 2025, which will set out the detailed roadmap and activities with our various business partners. We are very excited about this new chapter in our business journey and how it will improve our production to ensure the continuous growth of the Taaibosch Group.

Thank you to all our genetic clients over the past 5 years. It has been an amazing and valuable experience where we achieved more success than we anticipated and played a significant role in the operations of many farmers, locally and in Africa. We will follow a transition period with our clients to ensure as little disruption as possible.

Innovation is not about inventing something new, but finding new ways in doing the same thing, but in a better, faster and profitable way