Limpho Sello
LERIBE — Royale Highlands Front, a trout fish farm at Katse Dam, breeds fish and prepares them for export where they are packaged and sold to premium retail stores such as Woolworths.
Lauwrence Cornelissen, the project’s Managing Director, said they started the company in Lesotho in 2005 because of the clean quality and large quantity of water in the country, adding that the large volume of water helps them to supply fish to a market they have built for years.
He said originally they were based in the Eastern Cape in South Africa but had to move because of the shortage of water.
“We didn’t want to become useless to the community of Ha-Lejone. When we first came here, we decided to hire 28 community members from the surrounding village as we wanted them to be the first beneficiaries,” Cornelissen said.
He further said they didn’t want to enjoy all the profits to themselves so they gave a certain percentage of sales to the local community.
The community of Ha-Lejone in the
Leribe district is enjoying benefits such as assistance in education and upgrading of the community facilities.
For instance, Royale Highlands Front pays fees for three pupils from Malibamatso High School in addition to sponsoring another student who is undertaking a master’s degree in environmental studies at the University of the Free State.
“This money goes to them through a trust account with which the community also chose to upgrade the local water supply with the other money we had given to them,” Cornelissen said.
He said there is a steering committee that manages the money on behalf of the community which comprises community representatives and the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA).
Katse fish farm also makes regular monthly donations of fish to clinics and schools as well as the local community.
The farm has 14 cages in which they breed the fish up to when they are ready for the market.
From the 14 cages they are able to harvest up to eight tons of fish each week, which allows them to supply the market for a whole week.
Cornelissen manages the business with Mike Kruger and Greg Stubbs who he says have more than 30 years experience in trout farming.
“His (Stubbs) skills are helpful because as I said we work with the local community which have lack of experience when it comes to fish farming so he helps in intensive aquaculture training.” The project also has an aquaculture manager, Deon Palmer.