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CHAPTER 1
duction. However, adaptation regarding transport is needed, as the seeds are very
small and can easily be lost from normal bulk loads.
Canola/rape seed crops are some of the biggest among oilseeds in the world and
contributed nearly 14% of the world’s total oilseed production in 2009/2010. In that
year the total canola/rape seed production in the world was nearly 55 million tons.
Declining profit margins from the production of traditional winter grain crops due
to low producer prices and ever-rising input costs during the late 1980s created a
need for alternative cash crops that could be cultivated in the Swartland and the
Southern Cape. This led to the import of seeds of four crop plants for trials, namely
canola, linseed, sunflower and safflower. Trials with the four crop plants in various
places in the Swartland and Southern Cape over a period of three years from 1990
to 1992 indicated that canola that came from Australia showed the best potential
for the area. It was therefore decided that this was the way to go.
Canola was produced in South Africa for the first time in 1992, when 13 kg seed
were distributed among 30 producers to cultivate the first canola in the country on
a commercial basis. The crop, cultivated on approximately 400 ha, yielded about
500 tons of canola.
From these humble beginnings the canola industry in especially the Southern Cape
grew rapidly, and by 1996 15 000 ha canola had already been planted in this area.
Production of canola in the Southern Cape was further promoted by the establish-
ment of the company Southern Oil Ltd (SOILL) in 1996, wg=hich constructed an oil
press in Swellendam.
Although production in the Swartland did not grow as rapidly as in the more southern
parts of the Western Cape, the construction of an oil press in Moorreesburg during