As researchers, we examine individual decisions: which cultivar to plant, which rootstock to use, how plant material performs at a particular site, and whether a new option is likely to deliver what was expected of it.
However, these decisions are never made in isolation.
A promising cultivar still depends on the rootstock, production environment and management practices with which it is combined. Fruit may leave the orchard in excellent condition, but it must still withstand packing, storage, transport and a long export journey. A decision made in one part of the value chain can therefore have consequences much further along it.
Modern fruit production has become increasingly specialised. Researchers, producers, nurseries, intellectual-property owners, exporters, technical advisers, technology providers and packaging specialists each address different parts of the production and commercial system. Yet many of the industry’s most difficult challenges do not sit entirely within one organisation or discipline. They emerge where these areas of responsibility meet.
This is the thinking behind the Provar Information Day 2026, which will take place on Thursday, 10 September 2026, at Slanghoek Mountain Resort.
A broader conversation
The 2026 Information Day will examine how decisions made across the fruit value chain influence one another—from cultivar and rootstock selection in the orchard to technical partnerships, packaging performance and export-market requirements.
Independent cultivar and rootstock evaluation will remain central to the day. Provar’s researchers and evaluators will share current findings from the organisation’s stone-fruit, pome-fruit and rootstock programmes, including work on cultivar–rootstock combinations and the growing role of technology in evaluation.
The 2026 programme will, however, extend beyond the presentation of trial results. The programme builds on these discussions by looking more closely at the connections between research, orchard decisions, technical support, postharvest performance and market access.
Shared challenges and shared responsibility
The opening session will consider some of the broader questions facing the South African fruit industry. These include how decisions should be made under uncertain conditions, where structural gaps remain within the value chain, and what crop-production research will need to deliver over the next decade.
The panel discussion, Shared Risk, Shared Future, will examine a difficult but increasingly important question: what happens when a risk falls between organisations and no single role player clearly owns it?
The discussion will bring together Frederick Odendaal, Manager at CFG, Jacques Jordaan, CEO of SAPO, Jacques du Preez, CEO of Hortgro, and Angelique Pretorius, Technical Manager at Kromco. Together, they represent perspectives spanning commercial markets, plant material, industry coordination and practical production.
By bringing together perspectives from different parts of the industry, the discussion will explore how responsibility, information and risk can be shared more effectively before problems become costly or difficult to correct.
From the orchard to the market
The programme will then move from broader industry questions to the practical choices that connect the value chain.
Charl Stander will discuss why cultivar and rootstock choices should not be considered separately. Provar’s team will present recent evaluation results and reflect on what those findings mean in practice.
More than chemistry
Technical partnerships are another important connection point within the value chain.
This panel will bring together Neville van Buuren of Oak Valley, Bekker Wessels of ProCrop, Jacques Fouché of NexusAG and Schalk Reynolds of Philagro, with Hendrik Pohl chairing the discussion.
Together, they bring perspectives from production, independent technical advice and the crop-protection industry — three parts of the system that need to work closely together when making increasingly complex crop-production decisions.
The discussion will consider what an effective technical partnership should look like in practice. The value of these relationships depends on more than the performance of a product. It also depends on communication, realistic expectations, technical support and how challenges are addressed when environmental or production conditions change.
The final session turns to packaging and export performance. Speakers will consider changing European requirements, packaging design under commercial export conditions, what current trials are showing and where important knowledge gaps remain.
Why the Information Day matters
The value of the Provar Information Day lies not only in sharing new information, but in helping participants understand how decisions made across the value chain affect one another.
Previous Information Days have shown the value of engaging with perspectives beyond one’s own area of responsibility. In 2026, this broader exchange is intended to help participants:
- interpret research findings within a broader production and commercial context;
- identify risks that fall between traditional areas of responsibility;
- understand how decisions made in one part of the value chain affect another;
- identify questions that require joint research, trials or industry collaboration; and
- establish connections with people who view the same challenge from a different position in the industry.
A producer may raise a question that changes how a researcher interprets a result. An exporter may identify a market constraint that is not visible in the orchard. A nursery or intellectual-property owner may provide context that changes how plant material should be evaluated. A packaging specialist may identify a downstream risk that needs to be considered much earlier in the production process.
These are the kinds of insights that are difficult to generate within one discipline or reproduce through a report or presentation alone.
The intention of the 2026 Information Day is therefore not simply to present Provar’s results, but to encourage a more complete understanding of where industry responsibilities intersect and where stronger collaboration could improve decision-making.
No single role player can solve every challenge facing the industry. Better decisions become possible, however, when people understand how their part of the system connects with the rest.
The Provar Information Day 2026 takes place on Thursday, 10 September 2026, at Slanghoek Mountain Resort. Tickets are R950 excluding VAT. Register here.
Tristan serves as the CEO and Pome Rootstock Researcher at Provar. He holds a Master of Science in Horticultural Sciences from Stellenbosch University and specialises in the interactions between genotype and environment that affect adaptability in diverse production and management conditions. His research combines applied science with commercial horticulture, focusing on converting field-based evidence into practical information that supports decision-making for producers and industry stakeholders.
