About usSkimmelberg is a family owned company, with extensive experience gained overgenerations in the production of rooibos and buchuproducts.As both growers and processors of our own produce, wecan ensure highest standards in the entire productionprocess, and as such take pride in the outstanding qualityof our products.We firmly believe in biodiversity-friendly farming methods,and are actively promoting sustainable best practice aselaborated below:Our Farms, part of a World Heritage Site:Fynbos is the species-rich principal vegetation type of the Cape Floral Kingdom, which was declared a WorldHeritage Site by Unesco in 2004. Fynbos includes Rooibos and Buchu, both of which are endemic to the Cederbergregion. Both occur naturally on our farms on the slopes of the Skimmelberg Mountain, named after the dapple-greyappearance of its rock-strewn peak.Buchu has been harvested on our farms in the wild for the better part of a hundred years, originally in bags carrieddown the mountain on foot or by donkeys. Rooibos joined Buchu more recently as a crop, when it became popularearly in the first half of the last century.Today Buchu and Rooibos are cultivated rather than wild-harvested on our farms, in a sustainable way toensure an adequate supply, and simultaneously protecting it from over-exploitation in the wild.Biodiversity; our contribution:Greater Cederberg Biodiversity Corridor (GCBC)We subscribe to the aims of the GCBC, which it states as beingessentially about people, the rural communities and landowners, andhow they use the land to achieve a common purpose of sustainability,through appropriate conservation and management of the naturalresources of this unique and diverse region.Organic Farming:We have adopted environmentally friendly farming and production practices, working in harmony with nature bymaking use of its natural resources.An example of such practices is the use of organic liquid fertilizer, known as compost tea, made on our farms in theprocess of vermicomposting; another is the use of carbon-neutral fuel in our essential oil distallation plant.As a result we have gained certifi cation of our organic products from Ecocert, an independent certifi cationorganization representing the highest international standards for nature-friendly products.
