After 44 years in the deciduous fruit industry, Hugh Campbell retires as Hortgro Technical General Manager to begin a new career phase. He spoke to Anna Mouton.

On a Sunday afternoon in 1976, a young Hugh Campbell lined up with fellow first years being introduced into the Helderberg residence at Stellenbosch University. “I was this soutie from Cape Town,” he remembers. “My entire family went to UCT, and here I was, one of three Engelsmanne in Helderberg.”

However, university rituals didn’t faze Campbell, who had just completed his military service, including several months with artillery intelligence in Angola.

He jokes that one of his defining moments at Stellenbosch University was a Sportsman of the Year competition, which included weightlifting. “I was this skinny hockey player but out-lifted virtually everyone else. Suddenly, I earned credibility — guys were saying, jis, hierdie Engelsman is so skraal maar hy’s sterk.”

Campbell lived at Rozendal farm for the last three years of his studies. His first introduction to the fruit industry was a part-time job with the Canning Fruit Board as an assistant to technical manager Peter Greeff. Among other things, he helped run thinning trials on canning peaches. “The Canning Fruit Board offices were in the same building in Paarl where Hortgro is now,” says Campbell. Little did he realise he would return to work in that building a decade later.

Sour cherries and a wine bar

Campbell graduated with a BScAgric in Agricultural Economics in 1979. He had a bursary from the Department of Agriculture, so he moved to Pretoria in 1980 to start his career at the Foreign Marketing Bureau of the Department of Agricultural Economics and Marketing. “I loved staying in Pretoria because half of Stellenbosch was there working off bursaries. I played provincial hockey and club cricket,” recalls Campbell.

While with the Department, he applied for an exchange programme that sent him to Michigan, United States. He spent a year at the largest sour cherry farm in the world, which was also a big apple producer. “I did everything — I was a labourer,” he says. “I drove a tractor, supervised the harvest, sprayed herbicides, and painted trees.”

Campbell obtained an extension to spend an additional six months on a sweet cherry farm in Oregon, also the largest in the world at the time, and also with apples. He motivated for a further extension to gain experience with Granny Smith apples. “Then my brother came over, and we travelled through America for five months,” says Campbell. “I bought a combi, and we visited 32 states.”

From the United States, they went to the United Kingdom. Campbell’s brother worked as a chartered accountant, but Campbell wanted something other than a farming job involving gumboots and mud. Instead, he held various part-time positions, from office cleaner to wine-bar manager, all while playing club hockey for Hounslow. “Then I travelled around Europe for four or five months,” he says. “After that, I’d had enough. I returned to South Africa in December 1983 and started looking for work.”

Rhodes Fruit Farms

In March 1984, Campbell started as assistant farm manager at Rhodes Fruit Farms, which had about 500 hectares of fruit and 1 200 hectares under production. He was there for three years, becoming a senior farm manager responsible for 250 hectares of canning peaches and 50 hectares of citrus.

Rhodes Fruit Farms belonged to Anglo American, a significant player in South African agriculture at the time. Among other activities, Anglo American planted about 10 000 hectares of maize annually and produced about 10% of South African pork.

Anglo American bought Vergelegen in Somerset West in late 1987, and Campbell was appointed manager of the fruit division.

“At that stage, the farm had dairy and sheep, and that was all,” he says. “So, I had the privilege of coordinating the master plan for the development of Vergelegen. It was literally like my dream.”

The farm was 3 000 hectares with 464 hectares of high-potential soil and enough water to irrigate 500 hectares. The development entailed the production of wine, deciduous and citrus fruit, vegetables, and dairy. In three years, Campbell established 135 hectares of mainly low-chill fruit, including nectarines, Japanese plums, pears, and citrus.

“I was there for ten years,” he says. “It was the most wonderful place to live and a lovely place to raise your kids — we lived on a 3 000-hectare farm, and our kids could cycle to school.”

Deregulation brings opportunity

By the end of 1997, Anglo American was exiting agriculture, and Campbell decided to move on.

“This was the same time as deregulation, which provided opportunities, so I was considering joining an export company,” he says. Instead, he spotted an advertisement for an industry affairs manager at the new Deciduous Fruit Producers’ Trust (DFPT).

He was interviewed by Peter Dall, DFPT chair, and Anton Rabe, then with the South African Apple and Pear Producers’ Association. On 1 January 1988, he became the first new DFPT employee — back in the same building where he’d assisted the Canning Fruit Board as a student.

“Working on a farm, you’re mostly outside,” says Campbell. “Here I was, stuck inside the whole day. I’d go to the bathroom just to get out of my office.”

When Campbell started with the DFPT, the bulk of their funding went to research, and it soon became apparent that someone should manage research. He became that person. Over the following years, DFPT evolved into Hortgro, and Campbell became the general manager of Hortgro Science.

He initiated the three Hortgro Science research programmes — crop production, crop protection, and postharvest — and the appointment of Prof Wiehann Steyn as the programme manager, of crop production.

Campbell and Steyn improved the current structure of peer workgroups and added technical advisory committees to provide strategic direction and accountability for the research programmes.

“One strategic decision we made in 2006 was to invest in research capacity,” says Campbell. “I don’t think the industry is aware of our involvement with Stellenbosch University and other research institutions in developing the next generation of technical people and ensuring research capacity is in place for the future.”

The next phase

For the past two years, Campbell has focused on plant material. After retirement, he will continue consulting with Hortgro in this context. “I’ll be supporting the implementation of the start clean, end clean principle, which is embedded in plant improvement and managed through the certification scheme,” he explains.

He believes that the fruit industry can benefit significantly from improved plant material. “You have to look at the return on investment — you can’t just look at costs,” he says. “If you look at the performance of a virus-clean nursery tree that’s in balance, you can justify the expense of the tree, even at the high densities people are planting.”

Campbell will also facilitate the Hortgro Science review, which is performed every four years to inform their strategy for the next four years. He is confident that Hortgro Science will continue to thrive under his successor. “I was very lucky. We’ve had a seamless transition between myself and Wiehann,” he reflects. “He has a better profile than I did, from a science perspective, and is doing a great job.”

Nevertheless, it won’t be easy to fill the place of a man whose experience includes tractor driving, tree painting, weightlifting, and wine-bar management.