Research Overview SATI 2016 – 2020 levy cycle

Project prioritisation and funding allocation

Research and technical transfer projects are identified in two different ways by SATI. The first is directly through market access requirements where scientific evidence is required to gain access to new markets, or where it is required to retain or optimise access to existing markets (“Market accessibility”). The second is in direct response to producers’ needs and directly relates to being prepared for the market (“Market preparedness”).

Research and Technical Transfer is one of the operational focus areas through which SATI achieves its market access objectives.

In response to needs identified from producers, the SATI Research and Technical Transfer Programme strives to develop scientific knowledge and technical tools that are relevant to the industry. Prior to 2020, producers were invited to share their research needs at annual research workshops, which were hosted by SATI in each table grape region. But due to COVID-19, research needs are now identified by a survey of producers and industry service providers. Through this process, SATI can ensure that research is aligned with and relevant to industry, and can identify key topics for knowledge exchange and technical transfer.
At the start of the levy cycle, targets were set to spend 75% of the budget for research and technical transfer on research projects, and 25% on technical transfer. Research funding is split across six research themes (see Figure 1).

Despite special emphasis being placed on technical transfer, it was difficult to spend the targeted 25%, which means that in the new levy cycle (2020/21 – 2023/24) the target can be drastically reduced. Natural resource management also took up a very small portion of the budget. Pest management and Cultivar development on the other hand were allocated more than their target.

Research expenditure

Research funding for the 2016/17 – 2019/20 levy cycle averaged R7.2 million per year, and was spent on an average of 32 projects per year. Approximately R28.8 million was spent for the entire 2016/17 – 2019/20 levy cycle. The breakdown of expenditure per research theme is given in Figure 3. Research spending increased by 112% compared to the previous levy cycle, thanks to increased export volumes.

Importantly, in Pest management the expenditure was higher than anticipated due to the sudden need to fund pest management projects in direct response to market access. In terms of Cultivar development, expenditure was particularly high in this levy cycle due to the duplication of projects during the phasing out of ARC evaluation, and the phasing in of industry evaluation. The specific breakdown for Cultivar development is given in Figure 4 where it is shown how the ARC evaluation is phasing out (blue bar). In addition to the amounts reported in Figures 3 and 4, approximately R 1.8 million was spent to establish the infrastructure on the seedling site at Lelienfontein. It is expected that the funds spent on Cultivar development will stabilise and reduce over the next levy cycle.

Spending on market access was approximately R7.2 million (25% of total research funding during the 2016/17 – 2019/20 levy cycle) compared to about R3.0 million for the previous cycle (see Figure 5). This amount is expected to increase further over the next levy cycle.