Business

The 123-year-old family-owned South African company that is the largest tomato producer in the Southern Hemisphere

Shaun Jacobs • 14 June 2026

The Van Zyl family has been farming in South Africa for nearly three centuries, with their work culminating in the sprawling giant ZZ2.

Headquartered in the tiny rural town of Mooketsi in Limpopo, ZZ2 is the largest producer of tomatoes in the Southern Hemisphere.

Known by its iconic red, yellow, and green logo, which has been around for over 100 years, the brand and the family behind it have their roots in the Franschhoek valley.

Willem van Zyl was the first in the family to come to South Africa from the Netherlands as a fresh produce farmer for the Dutch East India Company in the Cape of Good Hope.

Van Zyl was fired from the company in 1702 due to insubordination and decided against returning home to his native land.

Instead, he bought a farm in Franschhoek where he farmed fresh produce, livestock, and produced some wine.

The farm was immensely successful, with Van Zyl’s descendants continuing to live off the land for over a century.

However, as with many Afrikaans families, the Van Zyls would not stay in the Cape and chose to head north to escape British colonial rule, establish their own republics, and find fertile land.

In the 1830s, the Van Zyls headed north and gradually moved into the interior of what would become South Africa over the next 50 years.

Eventually, after decades of travel, the Van Zyl family settled east of modern-day Polokwane and began setting up a fresh produce farm.

This location served the family well, avoiding much of the destruction of the Anglo-Boer War. This ensured members of the family would not have to leave to Johannesburg for work.

The aftermath of the Anglo-Boer War would also create the iconic ZZ2 branding that is still on every product the family produces today.

In 1903, the British imposed new farming regulations which forced farmers to brand their livestock with a government-registered number.

Burt van Zyl, the family head at the time, was awarded the code ZZ2 to brand his livestock. The next century would see his descendants turn a livestock code into an agricultural powerhouse.

Bertie van Zyl and the making of ZZ2

Burt’s grandson, Bertie van Zyl, would be the mastermind behind the modern ZZ2 giant, transforming a family-owned farm into a multi-billion-rand business.

Born on 16 November 1932 on the family-owned Boekenhoutbult farm in the Mooketsi valley, Bertie would not finish school.

Leaving education at 16 in 1948, he took over his father’s farming responsibilities. By this stage, all products from the family’s farm were marked with ZZ2.

This began with a sack of potatoes that were marked in red paint with ZZ2. Over time, the mark came to brand all of the family’s produce.

When Bertie took over running the Van Zyl farming operations, the activities centred on a mixed crop, with a focus on potatoes.

The company’s history notes that this period was extremely difficult for the Van Zyl family, stating that they barely produced enough profit from the farming operations to survive.

This would all change when Bertie noticed that his neighbouring farmer was making significantly more money by planting tomatoes instead of potatoes.

While potatoes are a relatively reliable crop, the Mooketsi valley is fertile with a climate well-suited to more lucrative crops.

Crucially, the climate in the Mooketsi valley made it possible to plant tomato crops year-round, making the yield extremely profitable.

Bertie faced another challenge in this regard – his father, who staunchly opposed a switch to tomatoes. It would take Bertie nearly five years to convince his father and finally harvest his first tomato crop.

The first tomato crop was harvested in 1953 and marked the beginning of an era of significant growth for the ZZ2 business.

It would no longer be about farming for survival, but looking for opportunities to grow the business and expand the farming operation into a fully-fledged agribusiness.

The growth offered by planting tomatoes resulted in ZZ2 being registered as a private company in 1966. This pushed the flywheel into overdrive.

Bertie would leverage the cash generated from the tomatoes to turn ZZ2 into a multi-million-rand farming conglomerate at the time of his death in 2005.

Emphasising Bertie’s impact on South Africa, his funeral was attended by Cabinet ministers, the Reserve Bank Governor, and thousands of his farmworkers.

ZZ2 today

Bertie’s son, Tommie, would reinvent the business once again after decades of farming took its toll on the land.

ZZ2 was in a difficult position. It had used industrial chemicals to boost production for decades. While this boosted crop yields in the short term, it depleted the soil in the long run.

The business was on an unsustainable path, consuming more and more fertiliser to achieve declining crop yields.

Tommie overhauled the company’s philosophy, giving it the name Natuurboerdery or Nature Farming, to revitalise the land.

ZZ2 pivoted away from relying on chemicals and called in experts from around the world to study the soil the company was using.

Ultimately, the company shifted towards using massive amounts of natural compost and implemented biological pest control.

Instead of using chemicals to protect their plants, ZZ2 would use insects to fight off pests and limit soil damage.

This was a masterstroke, with the company maintaining its production while gradually rehabilitating the soil and ensuring it could operate for decades to come.

Today, ZZ2 is an agricultural giant by any measure. It operates across 60,000 hectares of land spanning Limpopo, the Western Cape, the Eastern Cape, Gauteng, and Mpumalanga. It also has operations in Namibia.

The company remains famous for its tomatoes, but it has diversified significantly to limit the risk of crop failures due to changing climate conditions.

ZZ2 is now one of the largest growers of avocados in the Southern Hemisphere, and it also produces significant numbers of mangoes and onions.

The farming operation has also expanded into high-value exports, such as blueberries, cherries, dates, and almonds.

ZZ2 employs around 10,000 people across its ecosystem, making it one of the largest employers in the country.