Kutlwano Holdings (Pty) Ltd

Kutlwano holdings is a South African impact enterprise uniting small holder farmers, Clean Tech and Conscious consumers. We grow indigenous crops craft plant based foods and power it all with Solar

1. The Problem We Exist to Solve South Africa’s unemployment for 15-34 year-olds sits stubbornly above 60 %. Meanwhile the National Development Plan warns that “agriculture is the only sector that can absorb half a million new entrants before 2030”.

The gap between those two statistics is where Kutlwano operates: 70 % of the continent’s uncultivated arable land is in Africa, yet the continent imports $50 bn of food it could grow. Fresh-produce markets remain cartelised; smallholders receive <30 % of retail value.

Climate volatility has shortened the planting window by 17 days since 2000. Township households spend 34 % of income on food, but 40 % of what is served in school feeding schemes is imported frozen veg.

We refused to accept those paradoxes. Instead we built a pipeline of solutions that converts township grit, renewable electrons and under-utilised land into competitive advantage.