National Avocado Procurement Leader

Avolands; KwaZulu-Natal; Presencial; ZAR 1.200.000 - 1.800.000; Jornada completa

Descripción de la vacante

Avolands, founded on an avocado farm in KwaZulu-Natal, is a national avocado specialist with ripe-and-ready fruit and guacamole. The Group Procurement Manager will develop and manage a national procurement strategy, lead a small team, and focus on strategic sourcing, seasonal planning, grower and packhouse relationships, and long-term supply security.

The role involves time in the field developing trusted relationships with growers across South Africa and requires strong negotiation, forecasting

Formación

• Strong experience in fresh produce procurement or related commercial roles.
• Experience in the avocado industry would be highly advantageous.
• Existing relationships within the grower and packhouse community would be advantageous.
• Strong commercial and negotiation skills.
• Good understanding of agricultural production, seasonality and fresh-produce supply chains.
• Strong analytical, planning and forecasting capability.
• Excellent relationship-building and communication skills.
• Experience leading and developing a team.
• Willingness to travel regularly to farms, packhouses and production regions.
• Experience with international sourcing or imports would be advantageous.

Responsabilidades

• Develop and maintain a rolling 12-month national procurement programme aligned with forecast sales demand.
• Map avocado supply by region, grower, packhouse, variety and season, and proactively identify future supply gaps.
• Build and maintain strong, long-term relationships with strategic growers and packhouses through regular farm and packhouse visits.
• Develop a detailed understanding of expected crops, harvest timing, varieties, sizes, quality and market conditions.
• Identify and develop new growers, packhouses and supply regions.
• Lead commercial negotiations relating to fruit pricing, volumes, supply programmes, packing and procurement terms.
• Manage the transition between South Africa's different growing regions and develop appropriate import programmes where required to maintain year-round supply.
• Build a diversified supplier base that reduces reliance on individual growers, packhouses or production regions.
• Monitor supplier performance across quality, reliability, pricing and volume commitments, working closely with Quality Assurance and Operations.
• Maintain a strong understanding of crop forecasts, pricing, export-market dynamics, competitor activity and wider avocado industry trends.
• Lead the procurement team and ensure effective coordination between Procurement, Operations, Finance, Quality and Avolands' regional facilities.

Conocimientos

Procurement

Strategic sourcing

Negotiation

Team leadership

Forecasting

Relationship building

Supply chain

Travel willingness

Descripción del empleo

Avolands, founded on an avocado farm in KwaZulu-Natal, is a national avocado specialist with ripe-and-ready fruit and guacamole. The Group Procurement Manager will develop and manage a national procurement strategy, lead a small team, and focus on strategic sourcing, seasonal planning, grower and packhouse relationships, and long-term supply security.

The role involves time in the field developing trusted relationships with growers across South Africa and requires strong negotiation, forecasting