The main feature of Zeder’s first half results was a 119% leap in the management fee it pays majority shareholder PSG. Business Times asked Zeder CEO Norman Celliers: How can you defend such a big rise in the management fee?It is a substantial increase, but I think the market fully expected this. It is based on a new management fee agreement that came into place about two years ago, and with the acquisition of Agri Voedsel last year and the increase in our market cap, it was largely expected.You have to understand that the fee arrangement is a performance-based fee structure, so if the share price does well and the market cap increases, the shareholders benefit, but the fees are also higher; so it's a bit of a double-edged sword.Was the management fee extracted by PSG? Are other Zeder shareholders supportive of it?This management fee contract was proposed by Zeder shareholders, excluding PSG, and PSG accepted. It was not proposed by PSG.story_article_left1So there should be no reason for the market to quibble about the fee?I think it's fair, especially in light of the value creation that shareholders have seen.A lot of Zeder's performance is due to its 27.1% stake in Pioneer Foods, in which you're just a passive investor.In terms of us being a passive shareholder, I can assure you that's not the case. The PSG Group does play a role at Pioneer: it supports in strategic decision-making, it supports in capital allocation.Would you increase your stake further or would that skew ... your portfolio?It's a difficult question to answer because it depends on value and price and opportunity. We are happy with what we've got in Pioneer and, second, our goal is to build our portfolio with new investments and grow our other underlying companies. Three, four years from today I would like to see another company increasing in size to become quite substantial - R4-billion or R5-billion - and adding another one or two new investments.In your portfolio, what are the most likely candidates to be the next big fish? Certainly growth over this first half seems rather muted.I think you'll be surprised. Growth in most of our portfolio companies is actually quite exciting. The problem is, earnings only follow a year or two later. So what Project Internal Focus has meant for us over the past two or three years is that in each of our companies, we've spent an exorbitant amount of time with management to determine long-term strategies and sign off on strategic plans and start executing them. For example, Capespan has made acquisitions this year in Germany and Hong Kong; it's bought extra farms in South Africa. We bought pack-houses and we've made investments in Africa. Those will only contribute to earnings a year or three down the road. Agrivision Africa is continuously making investments in Zambia that we believe will make fantastic contributions.story_article_right2Zambia is an economy in trouble. Is it a country in which you want to invest?Any Africa decision has to be taken with a long-term view and I don't think the long-term fundamentals have changed. The short term is challenging. But our position was to be exposed to the basic daily needs of the staple-food customer.At what point will Agrivision break even?We would like to see Agrivision breaking even in their 2016 financial year, which is the end of next December. But I have to say we could break even there tomorrow if we stopped expansion. When you're growing a company you sometimes have extra costs and resources to open up new doors.What about drought here? How badly has it affected a company like Zeder?I think the drought is going to be tough in South Africa, but ... we're reasonably pleased with our portfolio. We deliberately position ourselves in companies that have multiple products, multiple markets and multiple geographic exposures. For example, a company like Kaap Agri: their products range from grapes in one part of the country to citrus in another, to apples.Talevi is a BDTV presenter..