Senwes Scenario April / Mei 2019 | Page 6

NUUS | NEWS Senwes’ For the Farmers-Campaign achieves 200 000 reach! On 1 February 2019 Senwes answered Agri SA’s call to “braai the farmers’ problems away” by initiating a social media call to action which saw the company’s staff hosting braais on company premises.  By Marlon Abrahams Senwes Scenario Editor-in-Chief T he idea was to assist farmers by “braai-ing up” the oversupply of red meat brought about due to the drought and the outbreak of Foot-and-Mouth disease in some parts of the country. At the time Senwes Group CEO, Francois Strydom, said “if everyone just bought 1kg of meat more than they usually buy, we can wipe out the surplus.” bles,” said Francois. This social media- based campaign is a fun way to shine the spotlight on the very serious relation- ship farming has in the lives of all South Africans and the South African economy as a whole. “The agri-sector plays a vital role in job cre- ation in every part of the value chain, from the farm to the plate, and makes a huge impact on the fiscus. Agriculture is the cor- nerstone of any successful economy, no matter which country we’re talking about. 06 Francois also issued a challenge to all SA companies to follow suit. The campaign was extremely successful with a reach of over 200 000 on social media and vari- ous media interviews. The success of the initial campaign led to Senwes extending the action to focus on all locally produced commodities in an effort to galvanise sup- port for farmers by all South Africans. The extension of the campaign kicked-off on Friday 1 March 2019 with the hashtags #eatlocalchicken #eetplaaslikehoender where Senwes staff posted selfies and group shots of themselves enjoying any chicken or poultry products, the idea being to support our local poultry farmers who are under enormous threat from inter- national imports. “We will embark on a commodity-wide focus for the rest of the year which will include every locally produced commodity in the Senwes area of operation, such as beef, poultry, sheep, pork, maize (animal and human consumption) dairy, soya, wheat, milk, potatoes, nuts and vegeta- 04 SENWES SCENARIO | HERFS • AUTUMN 2019 Senwes staff heed the call to help the farmers.