Villa Insights | E2 - Turkish delegates find common ground in SA

In late 2024, Villa Crop Protection had the honor of hosting a delegation of Turkish pome fruit and table grape specialists. This visit facilitated a rich exchange of agricultural knowledge, showcasing South Africa's expertise in crop protection and plant growth regulators. From insightful discussions at Oak Valley Estate to interactive demonstrations of MASTERLOCK® deposition technology, the delegation experienced the depth of South African agricultural innovation. The journey also included cultural experiences, such as a traditional braai and a visit to the Aquila Private Game Reserve, highlighting the potential for ongoing collaboration between the two nations.​

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Narrated using AI voice technology.

Transcript

Turkish delegates find common ground in SA

Oak Valley Estate near Grabouw rolled out the red carpet for Villa’s Turkish guests and provided much food for thought and lively discussion.

We decided there may be merit in doing an exchange programme and taking South African agents and producers to Türkiye to see how things are done over there.

Villa was privileged to host a delegation of Turkish pome fruit and table grape specialists late in 2024, showcasing the best South Africa has to offer and paving the way for further collaboration and knowledge sharing.

The Turkish agricultural industry dwarfs South Africa in many respects; it is ranked by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) as the seventh-largest exporter of agri commodities in the world, whereas South Africa’s share of overall exports is much smaller.

“Everything in Türkiye is on a much bigger scale than here in South Africa,” says Lourens Steytler, Villa lead for adjuvants, PGRs and biostimulants, who accompanied the visitors on their tour of prime Western Cape agricultural sites and facilitated the interactions.

“Türkiye, for instance, has 170 000 ha of apple orchards; whereas we have about 25 000 ha. They have about 330 000 ha of table grapes. South Africa has about 20 000 ha. We grow 500 000 ha of wheat, they do 6,6 million ha. Everything they do, they do at a scale we can only dream of.”

Yet it soon became apparent that South Africa has a lot to offer Turkish representatives and clients of the input provider Sumi Agro Europe.

The cream of the crop

The highlight of the tour was a visit to the respected Oak Valley Estate near Grabouw, a leading pome fruit producer.

Villa chose to make this event a showcase of the Western Cape’s pome fruit expertise, inviting some of the Western Cape’s top technical experts on apples from Villa retail partners for an information sharing session. These included InteliGro’s Reinhardt Wessels and Tielman Marais, Viking’s Ivan Claassen and Robert Wilsdorf, and AECI’s Kobus Möller, Dr Stephan Verreyne and Chad Minnaar.

“We used the day to demonstrate different concepts regarding plant growth regulator applications on apples and a new cultivar that was discovered on Oak Valley,” Lourens says.

“The idea was to demonstrate to the group what can be accomplished with plant growth regulators under South African growing conditions, while also introducing the Turkish delegates to this remarkable estate and what our producers are capable of.

During a lively exchange between the visitors and Oak Valley’s highly respected manager Neville van Buuren, it emerged that although Turkish producers generally achieve higher yields, a significantly greater proportion of Oak Valley’s yield meets export-quality standards.

Similar, but different

Turkish and South African apple producers use some of the same crop protection products – Exilis, Perlan and Kudos – and face similar challenges related to temperature and application timing. However, key differences remain.

“Weather plays a major role,” Lourens says. “Turkish producers often experience very cold conditions early in the season (below 15°C for extended periods). Most PGR products perform optimally in warmer conditions or when temperatures rise for three days following application.

“We found that in many instances the concepts are similar, but they do things slightly differently.

“For example, they use similar agrochemicals for chemical thinning, but they use it in different ways because of the colder temperatures they experience early in the season in the Northern Hemisphere. For example, their Perlan application rates are much higher and more frequent than what we are used to in South Africa, in order to achieve similar thinning and fruit sizing results.”

Lighting up deposition

The WinField United hosts took full advantage of the Western Cape’s long summer days by hosting a welcoming event at Curativo South. The programme included an introduction to the Villa product range, followed by a demonstration of MASTERLOCK® deposition on apples and citrus using the spray deposition analysis system UVIEW and DROPSIGHT to show the results.

“The delegates were extremely enthusiastic about the potential for MASTERLOCK® to improve the performance of crop protection products, and they appreciated the interactive nature of the UVIEW and DROPSIGHT technology, something they have some experience with back home.”

The full Curativo team was present to exchange ideas and introduce the Turkish visitors to the unique challenges faced by agricultural producers in South Africa. Knowledge-sharing continued well into the evening as the guests were treated to a traditional South African braai.

Game and grapes

The itinerary included a day visit to Aquila Private Game Reserve near Worcester, and were rewarded with sightings of most of the Big Five. It was followed by a bonus detour through the Hex River Valley and a short introduction to table grape cultivation, aimed at the table grape specialists in the group.

The visit was mediated by Fine Agrochemicals, a longtime Villa supplier headquartered in the UK, and included representatives and guests of the Turkish branch of input supplier Sumi Agro Europe.

“When you work in agriculture, you can find common ground in most things you do, whether you are based in South Africa or Türkiye, or anywhere else for that matter,” Lourens says.

“There are similar challenges and questions – implementing the best possible spray programme for your farm, how to get around the loss of certain active ingredients. The circumstances and challenges may not be identical, but ultimately all agri producers deal with the same type of issues, even if their approaches differ a little.

“You will always find something that someone somewhere else does in a slightly more effective way.

“We certainly found much common ground, and many aspects of production and crop protection on which we’d want to continue collaborating. We see this as the beginning of a fruitful partnership.”

Lourens says the two groups found significant scope for follow-up discussions.

“We decided there may be merit in doing an exchange programme and taking South African agents and producers to Türkiye to see how things
are done over there.”