Bernhard Lorenz Plath

Bernhard Plath is schooled in the earth sciences and agriculture. As a soil scientist since 1980, he specializes in assessing natural resources (soils, climate, and terrain) and deduces land capability and land potential for specific land use in the agriculture, forestry, urban, rural, environmental, irrigation and mining sectors. Specific tasks include soil surveys, land capability assessments, soil impact assessments, wetland and riparian delineation, GIS, GPS insight. BL Plath has been the sole owner and director of BLP Soil Surveys cc since 1996. Soil Surveys have become less in demand and in the last years the soil survey business has basically come to a standstill. A subdivision of BLP Soil Surveys cc Trading as BLP Farming accommodated the macadamia farming section near White River Mpumalanga. This is where Bernhard Plath resided and schooled from 1962 – 1975. After the death of his father in 1991 the macadamia farm was managed by Bernhard, it became a passion and he cared for the farm and expanded under BLP Farming and later migrated the business to Plath Macadamia Company (Pty) Ltd to date. Plath Macadamia Company (Pty) Ltd was registered in 2014 with Bernhard Plath as the only shareholder. The company farms on some 540 hectares in the subtropical region of the eastern Mpumalanga lowveld. The Farm is in the Peebles valley with some 150 hectares of macadamia orchards. Various macadamia varieties are propagated with tree ages between 2 to 50-years. This company farms high quality macadamia nuts for dry nuts in shell and kernel export markets. We do our own on farm processing regarding de husking, drying, sizing, bagging, and cool storage for dry in shell export. Dry in shell exports direct from our farms have been conducted since 2015 with success. Nuts inshell are also delivered to factories for kernel processing and export. Plath Macadamia Company is registered with Samac as a handler. In 2023 high quality macadamias are bought in from farmers and processed and bagged as dry nuts in shell according to contract specifications. We produce high quality dry in shell macadamia nuts for the export market with excellent drying and storing facilities. Current volumes exceed 300 tons to increase to 450+ ton by 2026 and expand to 600+ ton. Some 3ha cut Strelitzia cut flowers and 3 wildlife camps are also accommodated on the farm. The farms employ: 4 farm managers, 50 permanent and some 90 temporary employees are employed in the harvesting season per annum. Publications: