Hortgro’s newest board member, Unati Speirs, has built an impressive resume during her 20-plus years in agriculture. Hortgro sat down with the farmer and businesswoman to find out who she was away from the boardroom. By Kara van der Berg…
By Jacques du Preez A Trade & Markets update – 20 April 2020 With the outbreak of the Coronavirus in November 2019 in China, we as the South African deciduous fruit industry, find ourselves in uncharted waters. What seemed to be…
By Elise-Marie Steenkamp The impact of COVID-19 on the world, economy, and consumers can be equated to a meteor hitting earth. It has changed everything, but will those changes have a lasting effect? Local consumer reports indicate that people avoid…
One of the key economic drivers and objectives of the South African fruit and wine industries is to transform the agri-landscape in a sustainable manner by focussing on primary agriculture as well as the entire value chain – upstream and…
Strict water restrictions for Cape Town and surrounding areas will remain in place as there is not sufficient justification to reduce the water restrictions at this stage. This decision came after a high-level meeting by the Department of Water and…
By Matthew Addison PSHB is a top priority at Hortgro, and with respect to the progress made on the PSHB programme the following points are relevant: The PSHB workgroup met, and several priorities were listed. The proposed research group has…
FRESH NOTES 222: Update of Restricted Agricultural Remedies and Implementation of Pest Control Operators (PCOs) Hortgro acknowledges the concerns of fruit producers regarding the recent implementation of the Regulations relating to Agricultural Remedies and Pest Control Operator (PCO) regulations. These…
9 November 2021: As the flowering, fruit set, and thinning process on stone fruit progress a clearer picture is starting to form for the 2021/22 South African stone fruit season. The plum estimate for fruit packed for the export market has…
Press release: 16 May 2019 Urgent action needed to curb farm attacks The deciduous fruit industry body, Hortgro, has called on the Government to immediately put actions in place to protect farmers and rural communities from the spate of violent…
Important notice for primary agriculture and agribusinesses, as published in the Government Gazette of 17 January 2020: All water users that undertake commercial irrigation and who do not belong to a water user association or irrigation board required to install…
Text and photographs: Carmé Naudé The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) in partnership with California farm organizations and research institutions traveled to the Western Cape during August to build international collaborations with South African partners and share best…
In February 2026, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled 6–3 against the Trump Administration’s reciprocal tariffs imposed under IEEPA, effectively ending those measures. However, the relief proved short-lived. On the same day, the Administration introduced a temporary import…