Welcome to our first edition for 2025
With a number of key members of industry retiring, the one word that comes to mind is change. Looking up its etymology, I went down the rabbit hole of Middle English, French and Latin origins and I settled on “cambiare”, which – according to AI – is Latin for “barter” or “exchange”.
Indeed, there’s a significant exchange that takes place between an industry and the veterans that retire from it. The industry gains their substantive contribution to a wealth of institutional knowledge. And they gain the opportunity to do more of that which brings them joy.
Well, leaving big shoes to fill, Matthew Addison, Elleunorah Allsopp, Hugh Campbell, Justin Chadwick and Louis van Zyl are all walking away with beautiful memories of illustrious careers, as they embark on the next chapter of their individual life journeys. You may read their engaging stories in this edition, and Addison’s in the Dec/
Jan ’25 edition. Fortunately, the fresh fruit industry prioritises succession planning and information sharing, allaying any fears of lost institutional knowledge.
And, as they say, the show must go on. Nieteenstaande heersende uitdagings – soos die impak van klimaatsverandering, ekonomiese terugslae, toenemende fitosanitêre vereistes en voortdurende logistieke uitdagings – lyk rolspelers in die varsvrugtebedryf van SA slaggereed om die jaar aan te pak.
Neigings wat waarskynlik hierdie jaar ‘n impak op die bedryf sal hê sluit in voortge-sette aanpassings rondom klimaatsverandering, ’n toenemende aanvraag vir volhoubare en etiese produkte, verhoogde gebruik van tegnologie en kunsmatige intelligensie, mak-simering van groot data en markdiversifikasie (d.w.s. verkenning van alternatiewe markte, insluitend ontluikende ekonomieë).
In this edition – in what we hope will make for another engaging read – we also feature “What table-grape growers want”, Beginsels van blaaspootjies, Maximum residue levels, Drosophila suzukii (suzuki-asynvlieg), and so much more. And outgoing Citrus Growers’ Association CEO Justin Chadwick explores change in his fi nal foreword, from the perspective of “The more things change, the more they stay the same”.
As the harvesting season for most stone fruit draws to a close, with pome fruit and some citrus types having just about got started, we wish our colleagues in these sub-sectors seamless operations.
In the meantime, I encourage you to maximise the beauty of change, as a lever for growth.
A prosperous 2025 to you.