The roof wetting ceremony of HORTGRO Science's new office space at Stellenbosch University's Welgevallen experimental farm on 22 February has heralded in a new era of collaborative research and the strengthening of alliances between the University and the South African fruit industry at large.

HORTGRO Science is the research arm of the South African deciduous fruit industry. It has taken up new office space as a long-term tenant in the Wintergrain Building on the experimental farm.

It is expected that other research entities in the fruit industry will follow suite in the next few months.

"In the process the active engagement of the Faculty of AgriSciences within the South African agricultural sector will be extended," says Prof Danie Brink, acting dean of the Faculty of AgriSciences at Stellenbosch University.

HORTGRO Science General Manager Hugh Campbell said in a press release that the move represented the culmination of a long-term strategic vision of creating a "research hub" for the organisation. "We developed the concept of a research hub which we visualised as an area populated with like-minded industries," Campbell said. "In a time of limited funding and capacity, alliances are important and we cannot operate in isolation."

The move further strengthens the longstanding association between the deciduous fruit industry and Stellenbosch University. According to Campbell, one third of HORTGRO Science's research funding budget is allocated to researchers associated with the University. This includes staff and students of the SU Department of Horticultural Science and the Department of Plant Pathology. Capital investments made by HORTGRO Science in recent years include the establishment of insectaries at the SU Department of Conservation Ecology and Entomology and the Welgevallen Experimental Farm, as well as cold rooms for the SU Department of Horticultural Science.

Stephen Rabe, chair of the HORTGRO Science Advisory Council, acknowledged the vision of Prof Danie Brink towards establishing the collective research space.