Various industry specialists are involved with Agri-Intel.
Kobus Hartman is an acknowledged expert on crop protection and agrochemical use, as well as the market access risks related to use of chemicals in the production of food crops.
Kobus (B.Sc. Agric. (University of Stellenbosch), Pri.Sci.Nat.), has been involved in the agrochemical and food industry for 38 years; first as research and sales support agriculturist and later as Technical and Commercial Manager in the Cape for FBC. He joined the deciduous fruit exporter Unifruco in 1993 as Environmental Manager, where he played a leading role in establishing an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach in the South African deciduous fruit industry. From 1999, as Market Access Manager of Capespan, his focus moved to the development of systems and tools to manage risks related to food safety and agrochemical matters. In 2009 he returned to the agrochemical industry, as Business Development and Technical Manager at the agrochemical distributor Viking.
He is involved in workgroups and projects on Maximum Residue Levels (MRLs) and other agrochemical issues, with the aim to establish responsible and sustainable crop protection strategies for fruit production.
Sarah le Grange is an industry expert on standards for Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and was responsible for the development of the Integrated Crop Management Assessment System (ICMAS), an industry one-stop GAP and GMP assessment tool, at Capespan. She was also responsible for the development of the ABSi website, a tool to streamline communication between food suppliers and the market, and more recently for the development of the Agri-Intel website.
Sarah holds the degrees M.Sc. Agric. in Horticulture and B. Hon. Journalism (University of Stellenbosch). She started her career in agriculture in 1994, as a journalist at and later editor of the industry magazine, Deciduous Fruit Grower. In 1997 she shifted her focus to more technical matters, becoming involved in development of quality prediction systems for pome and stone fruit and table grapes at Capespan, and systems for the implementation of GAP and GMP practices in the industry.
Since leaving the employ of Capespan 2010, she has been working on various agrochemical-related projects in the fruit industry.
Chana-Lee is responsible for the maintenance of the content of the Agri-Intel agrochemical database. This involves the interpretation and capturing of relevant information contained in agrochemical labels as well as updating of changes to registration information.
She is also the main contact person responsible for ongoing communication with registration holders to ensure that Agri-Intel remains up to date with changes in registrations and to resolve queries regarding information contained in the labels. Chana-Lee holds the degrees BSc (Hons) in Microbiology (Rhodes University) and MSc in Plant Pathology (University of Stellenbosch).
She started her career in agriculture as a research and technical support officer at a leading table grape grower-exporter, before joining Agri-Intel in January 2011.