Excelsior

About Excelsior

Pienaar Viviers is fullfilling his dream to farm in the Karoo. After he passed matric at Carnarvon High School he entered the banking sector. He later graduated at UNISA where he obtained two degrees. His love for farming remains and he inherited a farm in 1990 after the death of his parents. After obtaining three more farms in 2005, he decided to call it a day in the corporate world and resigned as Head of Absa AgriBusiness Strategy. He held several senior positions in banking among which the position of Provincial General Manager of Absa Bank, Gauteng North.

Pienaar enjoys the freedom of farming away from the hectic traffic of Gauteng. According to him, the clean fresh air of the Karoo is the best tonic you can get. 

Pienaar, together with his sons who are all qualified in agriculture management, farms all the farms effectively as a unit. He is a realist, and is not in the farming business only for the love of it, but for profitability; which often requires breaking away from traditional farming methods. They furthermore explore new industries as it is important to diversify and not only be reliant on one source of income. Pienaar loves to gather the sheep with the workers, as it is the best way to keep an eye on the condition of the veld and check for possible erosion. 

A unique feature on his farm, Keurfontein, is a Bushman organ/piano and several Bushman drawings on the iron stones (klip koppies). Tourists are welcome to contact Pienaar for a visit to these attractions by appointment.

Pienaar is a director of the Certified Karoo Meat of Origin-project as he believes in the quality meat that is produced in the Karoo. He is proud to deliver the Karoo lamb that they produce to the consumer and is therefore prepared to be identified by the consumers via the certification mark of “Certified Karoo Meat of Origin”. He is also actively involved in the agricultural sector and community of Vosburg.

The Karoo lamb is a quality product for the consumer. The project aims to prevent people from selling hormone infused and infected lamb under the “Karoo” name. People should not abuse the “Karoo” name as it stands for quality and natural products. One should be sure it is Karoo lamb before you buy it. Only the Karoo lamb has the unique taste as it originated from six bushes that grows in the Karoo. You could therefore say the Karoo lamb is “Spiced on the Hoof” for the consumer. If the Karoo lambs are taken out of the natural Karoo veld conditions to for instant a feedlot, the unique and iconic Karoo taste fades within three days.  

Having served in the corporate sector for 35 years, Pienaar realises that the survival of any business is to provide consumers with quality products which they prefer – consumer orientation. For that reason he is proud to assist in providing the consumers with the best lamb available in South Africa which is Certified Karoo Meat of Origin. He urges consumers to make sure that they only consume Certified Karoo Meat of Origin, as it is “Proudly South African”. He also wishes to shorten the marketing channel between the farmer and the consumer in order to make meat more affordable to the consumer.