Student-run farm in Mpumalanga grows castor to cut South Africa's R400 million oil imports

South Africa spends about R400 million a year importing castor oil, almost all of it from India. A farm in Mpumalanga run by two young entrepreneurs is growing castor plants to make the oil at home, and plans to train local farmers to do the same.

Vhutomi Enterprises grows castor on its farm in Mpumalanga and turns the seeds into castor oil and castor-based products for the cosmetics, pharmaceutical and industrial markets. It was started by Abednego Sibiya, whose hometown, KaMaqhekeza township in Mpumalanga, has an abundance of castor plants. Kamogelo Mokale, a final-year biochemistry and human biology student at the University of Cape Town, joined him and now leads the business.

"About 99% of our castor oil comes from India and the import costs associated with that costs the country a fortune," Mokale told UCT News. "As a country, we are heavily dominated by food crops. But we tend to overlook the potential of our industrial crops and what it could mean for our economy and for job creation."

Mokale found the gap while running an earlier business making hair products: one of her formulas needed castor oil, and cosmetic-grade oil turned out to be very expensive in South Africa.

The company is setting up training programmes to show current and would-be farmers how to grow and sell castor commercially, and is working on a partnership with a financial institution to add financial literacy training. Mokale said the aim is to create work for young people in a country where "unemployment levels are far too high".

Later this month Mokale goes to the national final of the 2026 Entrepreneurship Innovarsity competition, run by the Department of Higher Education and Training's Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education programme to find the top student entrepreneurs at South Africa's 26 public universities.

Source: UCT News