South Africa: Significant increase in pre-harvest fruit research

Six months have now passed since ExperiCo became part of the Farmsecure family. After being “adopted”, the journey to date has been filled with exciting events and challenges. These have, and are, enabling ExperiCo to further develop existing strengths in the business and very importantly, to create new ones. Hence the sub-title of this communication - “ExperiCo Evolution”.

While the post-harvest fruit related research and services activities have remained more or less the same over the 6 month period, there has been a significant increase in the amount of pre-harvest fruit research, and ExperiCo has taken the plunge into research on field crops as well. While the field crop research programme is in its infant stages at present, there is no doubt it will grow into a substantial successful business over time. This is because to farm profitably nowadays, it is essential to only use scientifically tried and tested techniques and technologies. The custodians of the field crop research programme at ExperiCo are Dr Ida Paul a crop protection specialist, and Neville Raath, a specialist in the field of crop nutrition.

Over and above expansion into field crops, ExperiCo is also poised to play a greater role in commercial fruit quality management, than it has in the past. Arrie de Kock and Dawie Moelich will team up to provide near- and post-harvest fruit quality and packaging management inputs for fruit sourced from Farmsecure farms. This service will be extended to the industry as well.

Arrie is a scientist with many years of broad based experience in the fruit business, and specialises in stone fruit storage. Dawie on the other hand is a packaging specialist, who will consult on general packaging issues, in particular those impacting on maintenance of optimal fruit quality during cold storage. It is believed that the combination of research and commercial management of quality will be of benefit to commercial operators since it ensures best use of latest technologies. On the other side of the coin, it is also beneficial for the research scientists that make up the core of ExperiCo’s business, because it assists the scientists to focus research on commercial needs. It will be up to the research managers, Dr Johan Fourie and Dr Ian Crouch, to ensure that their teams develop “solutions” and/or “opportunities” as required.

All at ExperiCo are very excited about the evolution taking place and are thankful to all our clients for making it possible, by placing business with us.

For more information:
Dr Martin Taylor
Tel : +27 21 887 1134
Fax : +27 21 887 1117
[email protected]
www.experico.co.za