DURBAN - Uzair Essack, the founder and managing director of CapeCrops, has been named one Forbes Africa 30 under 30.
CapeCrops is a supplier and distributor of fruit, vegetable and other items to clients that are on the African continent and the rest of the world.
Some of the countries that the company delivers include China, India, Saudi Arabia, Cameroon, Gabon, France and Germany.
Essack, who grew up in both Johannesburg and Durban, said that he has been an entrepreneur/businessman from the age of 7.
"I have been creating and maintaining numerous businesses throughout my life, with my vision always towards bettering myself, my business and towards my next entrepreneurial ventures," said Essack.
The entrepreneur said that he needed to start the company to financially support myself since I was studying away from home at the Univeristy of Cape Town.
Just before starting CapeCrops, Essack was importing rice from Pakistan an India. One of his colleagues had an enquiry from Saudi Arabia for pineapples.
Essack managed to source the pineapples and sent their first shipment. He then realised there was huge potential for South African fruit as it is some of the best in the world. He later travelled to Europe and the Middle East looking for customers and travelled throughout the country looking for suppliers. He put them all together and CapeCrops was born.
Essack hopes to take CapeCrops to a level where he owns their own infrastructure such as pack houses, coldstores. He also wants to diversify and maybe buy into or open businesses in other industries.
Essack counts Elon Musk as a businessman that inspires him. "A fellow South African born entrepreneur, he has many business which are in many industries and are all extremely innovative," said Essack.
He said that his proudest moment as an entrepreneur is being listed on the Forbes Africa 30 Under 30 list.
Essack has won numerous awards including 2019 Medium Business Entrepreneur of the Year ©, 2019 Minara Young Entrepreneur Award 2019 and second runner up of the Young Business Achiever Award.
The entrepreneur is also the founder and president of GetGiving, a non-profit company which aims to benefit the community in as many ways as possible.