Agribusiness advocacy group Agbiz said on Friday it had appointed Stephanie van der Walt as general manager of its Fruit Desk, a new initiative aimed at ensuring the sector is better represented.
It said van der Walt was joining from the National Agricultural Marketing Council, where she served since 2010, first as a senior analyst and later as a manager.
“The purpose of the desk is to ensure that the South African fruit sector is represented in matters of policy, regulation and market access,” Agbiz said in a statement.
In December, Confidence in South Africa’s agribusiness sector has waned in recent months, with a quarterly index sponsored by advocacy group Agbiz and the Industrial Development Corporation falling to its lowest in nine years.
After declining to 48 points in the third quarter of 2018 from 54 in the previous quarter, the Agbiz/IDC Agribusiness Confidence Index weakened further to 42 in the last quarter of the year, the lowest point since the fourth quarter of 2009.
