AGRICULTURAL NEWS - Viking Farming near East London in the Eastern Cape is a small but intensive vegetable operation that supplies supermarkets and processors across the Eastern Cape and even the Western Cape. Mike Burgess visited Valhalla farm to better understand how owner Mike Pedersen-Horn has managed to build up this adaptable and profitable business over the past 20 years.
“Start small and get to know your soils and crops as you go. Every farm and every soil is different. There’s no substitute for experience.”
This is Mike Pedersen-Horn’s advice to anybody wanting to start a vegetable operation, as he did in 2001. Today, he plants between 10 000 and 20 000 seedlings a week and supplies chain stores from Butterworth in the former Transkei to George in the Western Cape.
Getting going
Pedersen-Horn grew up on Valhalla farm, which was purchased in 1965 by his grandfather, Ernst.
Over the years, portions of the farm were sold off until the family was left with the current 60ha. By the time Pedersen-Horn left school in 1996, his father, Peter, was a sales representative in the former Transkei and only a part-time vegetable/dairy farmer on Valhalla.
