Tafel- en Droogdruifdae

Independent political and economic analyst

JP Landman is a self-employed analyst on political-economic trends. He focuses on trends in politics, economics and demography. In 2006 he was appointed as a member of then Pres Mbeki’s Economic Advisory Panel; in 2015 he was appointed by the President as a member of the National Planning Commission for a 5 year term; and he is a non-executive director of the JSE listed food company Libstar. In 2013 he was elected a Public Policy Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Centre for International Scholars in Washington DC and he spent four months in the US. He has a BA LLB from Stellenbosch University (1978), studied Economics at Harvard (1998 and again in 2005), and obtained a MPhil in Future Studies (cum laude) from Stellenbosch (2003). In 2009 he completed a course at Oxford University Continuing Education on the economies of the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India & China).

Universidad Católica de Chile

Juan Pablo teaches at the School of Agriculture and Forestry of Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in the areas of fruit physiology and postharvest technology. His focus research has been to understand critical physiological disorders that affects Chilean fruit export, such as hairline in table grapes, internal browning and mealiness in peaches, abnormal softening in kiwifruits and pitting in sweet cherries, together with early prediction of internal browning and bitter pit in apples, using non destructive equipment. His lab, in collaboration with projects associated with packaging company, developed modified atmosphere packaging for the sweet cherry, blueberry and kiwifruit industry. The ongoing postharvest program for sweet cherries has made it possible to extend the storage time of this species and maintain constant growth in distant export markets such as China. The optimization and alternatives to the use of SO2 in the control of decay and the study of the rachis browning in new cultivars are some of the projects that are currently being carried out.

Bayer

Mr. Agustí Soler was born in Barcelona (Spain) in 1963. He graduated in Agricultural Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (Spain) and earned a MSc degree in Plant Pathology from Auburn University (Alabama, USA). He started his professional career at Zeneca Agrochemicals (Jeallott’s Hill Research Station, Bracknell, UK), were he leaded the Soil Pests Team, at that time developing soil nematicides. In 1995 he joined Bayer in Spain, initially as Development Manager and later as Regulatory Affairs Manager (Insecticides) and as GAP & Food Safety Manager. In 2020, Mr. Soler joined the EMEA Regional Marketing organization of Bayer. He is currently Crop Portfolio Solutions Manager for Biologics and Agronomic Profiling, developing tailored solutions for fruits and vegetables, combining crop protection products (chemical and biological) with seeds and digital tools. He also provides specialized support on chemical residues and Food Safety.

Agri Innovation Hub

Albert Strever is a Senior Lecturer in the department of Viticulture and Oenology and coordinates the Agri Innovation and Informatics platform for the AgriSciences Faculty at Stellenbosch University. He did research in Grapevine Cultivation, climate studies and Remote Sensing for about 15 years, and veered from the “normal” University career in 2017 into a position combining teaching with industry interaction and innovation coordination. Starting an Agri Innovation Hub, initially focussed on grapes and wine in the Faculty of AgriSciences at Stellenbosch University in 2018, he also took over the coordination of the Agri informatics initiative at the Faculty in November 2020. He works close to Innovus, Stellenbosch University’s university-industry interaction platform for the commercialisation of SU’s assets, as well as the Launchlab assisting with programmes related to entrepreneurship and start-up development in Agriculture. Albert has been a mentor in the Launchlab countdown programme in 2019 until 2021.

Agricultural Research Council, South Africa

Although Dr Daniels does research on the evaluation of newly bred raisin grape selections in the Crop Development Division at ARC Infruitec-Nietvoorbij that led to the first South African raisin grape cultivar, Sundowner, for commercial use. He has 15 years’ experience in table grapes and have published scientific and popular articles from his PhD work that investigated non-destructive technologies to determine external and internal quality of table grapes. This included developing prediction models for sugar determination on whole berries in the vineyard and several parameters on whole bunches in the packing shed. He also looked at classifying browning during different cold storage periods.

ARC

Carolyn Howell was appointed as a Grapevine Irrigation Researcher in Soil and Water Science, ARC Infruitec-Nietvoorbij in 2010. She has worked on two completed WRC projects with Philip Myburgh and Vink Lategan. These projects (i) investigated the use of diluted winery wastewater for vineyard irrigation, and (ii) combined effect of canopy management and irrigation on grapevine performance. Currently she is the project leader of a SATI project to develop guidelines for the judicious irrigation of table grapes according to grapevine water potential measurements. She is also the project leader of a WRC-Winetech-ARC project investigating the use of winery wastewater as a resource for irrigation of vineyards in different environments.

Tissue Culture Facility

I obtained my BSc (Agric) Genetics at Pretoria University in 1995 and MSc (Agric) Genetics at Stellenbosch University in 1999. I joined the Institute for Plant Biotechnology (IPB) in 2001, where I managed the sugarcane transformation platform. During 2007 - 2016 I was involved with grapevine tissue culture research at the Institute for Wine Biotechnology (IWBT). In 2016 I joined West Cape Biotech Pty (Ltd) as Assistant Tissue Culture Manager where I managed the tissue culture multiplication projects. Currently, I am part of the managing team at the newly established Plant Tissue Culture Facility (TCF).

SATI

Clayton Swart is the Manager: Communications and Market Development at the South African Table Grape Industry (SATI) for the past 5 seasons. He is a contributor to the SA Fruit Journal and represents the industry at global fruit exhibitions in key markets. He holds degrees in journalism and has broad experience as a senior journalist for some of SA’s leading newspapers and a leading online news portal. He co-authored a book about Nelson Mandela. He lived and worked in Cape Town and Johannesburg/Pretoria while working as Communications Manager in the business and medical industries before moving to SATI.

Raisins South Africa

Ferdie is a qualified Agricultural Economist, with 15 years’ experience in the Agricultural sector. He started his career as a researcher at the Department of Agricultural Economics, at the University of the Free State, where he completed his M.Com degree in 2008. He joined a private consultancy firm in 2008, specialising in Agri-industry related research. In 2011 he joined the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), a Development Finance Institution (DFI), where he was involved in a number of developmental projects in the Agricultural-, Tourism- and Renewable Energy sectors. He joined the Dried Fruit Industry in 2017 and today leads Raisins South Africa with the vision to grow a sustainable- and competitive industry.

Barendbrug

Ivan Jansen van Rensburg is an agronomist with over 3 years of experience, working at Barenbrug South Africa Seeds. He specializes in cover crops and pastures. Ivan graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Stellenbosch University in 2017, with his majors in Soil Science and Agronomy. He is currently studying part time at Stellenbosch University’s Business School. He grew up on a vineyard farm in the Olifantsriver region, therefore he has a good understanding of the industry. Ivan is a part of Conservation Agriculture Western Cape’s management, which serve as a forum where producers, researchers and related industries can discuss conservation agriculture matters.

CORTEVA

Applied Entomologist (PhD Agric, Stellenbosch University) - Integrated Field Scientist, Corteva AgriScience. Responsible for the development and communication of commercial pest management solutions in fruiting crops for the South African export market.

ExperiCo

Dr Johan Fourie, Research-fellow and previous MD at ExperiCo Agri-Research Solutions, has a broad knowledge of fruit and the associated physiological and pathological problems occurring pre- and post-harvest. Schooled as applied researcher in plant pathology, he focuses on commercial applications to maximize storage potential, by improving decay control and maintaining fruit quality. He has been involved in testing and commercialization a number technologies in the disciplines of cooling, packaging and control of Botrytis and other decay types during storage of table grapes, servicing packaging, export and chemical companies, supermarkets, growers and other clients in South Africa and abroad, the past 42 years.

Aerobotics

My passion for agriculture, especially Viticulture started at a very young age and escalated into a career when I completed my studies in Viticulture and Oenology at the Stellenbosch University in 2008. Building on an everlasting passion I completed my Masters in Horticulture with the main focus on sustainable use of inputs including the sustainable management of nutrients like nitrogen. I believe the future lies in ensuring that every input is optimised to the extent that it contributes to the sustainable production of high quality yield, both quantitative and qualitative. Through identifying, quantifying an minimising certain limiting factors, optimal yields become a reality season after season.

Stellenbosch University

Justin completed both his undergraduate and Masters degrees at Stellenbosch University. Before performing his PhD research in Italy and Israel in a collaboration between Fondazione Edmund Mach and Weizmann Institute of Science respectively. This research was predominantly focused on genomics and molecular physiology of fruit. He then returned to South Africa where he took up postdoctoral fellowship at ARC-Infruitec/Nietvoorbij, applying much of his fundamental knowledge to investigate fruit genetics and breeding. He now holds a researcher position at Stellenbosch University, where his group focuses on grapevine breeding.

Nemlab

Sheila Storey obtained her BSc (Agric) with Entomology and Plant Pathology at Stellenbosch University and completed her MSc Agric in Nematology in 1985. In 1987 she started the first private, commercial nematode diagnostic laboratory in South Africa, Nemlab, which has evolved into a small business with 25 staff members. Sheila’s thirty-plus years of experience has equipped her with in-depth knowledge of nematode diagnostics, problems relating to nematodes and a holistic approach to recommendations made to producers. In the last few years, she has also expanded her focus to specialize in soil health.

Raisins SA

Stefan obtained B.Agric. in 2006 at Elsenburg. He started his career as Junior Production Manager at Karsten Farms. He then joined Orange River Cellars where he was promoted to Senior Viticulturist. For two consecutive years he won the award as Viticulturist of the year. His next move was to Inteligro, as Crop Solutions Specialist. He supplied mainly Table, Raisin Grape and Pecan Nut producers with advice and programs for fertilization, monitoring and other farming practices. In 2019 he joined Raisins SA to achieve his passion of servicing the agricultural sector and improving practices and quality in the grape industry.

Capespan

Tinake graduated at the University of Stellenbosch with a MSc Agric (Viticulture) focused on table grapes in 2007. She started her career at Colors fruit as junior technical manager and was soon promoted to technical manager for grapes and pomegranates. She furthered her career as Production and technical manager for table grapes and pomegranates at Sapex fruit (Pty) Ltd from 2013, also dealing with import fruit from Spain and Egypt. Currently Tinake holds the position of Technical manager grape division Africa for Capespan SA (Pty) Ltd since 2018 and has also done extensive R&D work in her 12-year career.

NexusAG

Graduated in 2008 from Stellenbosch University with a MSc (Agric) degree focusing on table grapes - The effect of cell walls on grape berry firmness. Worked parttime as a technical assistant at the university, and as cultivar evaluator at Sunworld and Hoekstra Fruit Farms. Was employed for about ten years by Environscientific doing Integrated Production of Wine (IPW) audits as well as Farming for The Future Sustainability Audits and consultations. Four years were spent at Philagro SA as a product manager focusing on Plant Growth Regulators on Table grapes. Was appointed since December 2020 at NexusAG as Technical and Commercial Manager focussing on grapes.