UCL Avocado Packaging Plant In August 2025, SASTA members visited Union Co-Op Limited (UCL)’s advanced Avocado Packaging Plant. The tour offered valuable insight into the company’s highly efficient and sustainable operations. Led by Clinton Vermeulen, General Manager: Operations (Manufacturing), members explored the facility’s innovative processes and technology. The avocado packhouse is a recent addition to…
DetailsSASRI Celebrates a Century of Impact! The South African Sugar Research Institute (SASRI) marked a major milestone — 100 years of groundbreaking research and innovation — with a prestigious centenary celebration at Mount Edgecombe on Tuesday, 15 July. Held under the theme “A Century of Achievement, a Future of Possibilities,” the event reflected on SASRI’s basis of…
DetailsSustainability in action at… Donovale Farming Company The recent SASTA Field Day in the Midlands showcased the impressive sustainability journey of Donovale Farming Company. Attendees had the opportunity to meet owners Chris and Ant Edmonds, with Ant presenting the farm’s innovative and ecoconscious approach to agriculture. Spanning 985 hectares in KwaZulu-Natal, Donovale grows sugarcane, navel…
DetailsBell Equipment, Richards Bay If big machines and a home-grown success story are your thing, you’d have been sorry to miss the SASTA field visit to Bell Equipment, in Richards Bay, on 19 May 2025. SASTA visitors were greeted with tea and coffee, and an introduction to the Bell story by employees Emile van Wyk…
DetailsRossi La Mercy Early in May, members of SASTA were invited to visit Rossi’s facility in La Mercy. Rossi, a global leader in industrial gearbox manufacturing, invited SASTA to view the largest planetary drive of the Rossi product range. The SASTA group were also treated to a tour of their operations and given an overview…
DetailsSite visit to FOSKOR, Richards Bay SASTA’s offering to members includes site visits and field days. These visits are frequently outside of the sugar industry and therefore provide exposure to different processes, practices, technologies and perspectives. SASTA members visited FOSKOR Richards Bay towards the end of 2024. Because of the high number of members interested…
DetailsGoing Nuts on the South Coast! A SASTA field day was held on 20 June 2024 to showcase macadamia nut cultivation and processing. A diversified farming operation at Selsdon Park Estate, Trafalgar, South Coast, was presented by Mark Brand and family, where both sugarcane and macadamia nut cultivation are done supremely well. Mark’s son, Justin,…
DetailsSASTA Congress 2024 Awards The annual SASTA Congress serves as a great opportunity for the exchange of scientific knowledge related to sugarcane agriculture and the processing of sugarcane products. Authors of outstanding papers or posters at congress are duly recognised through congress awards. SASTA Congress 2023 Awards: Download PDF
DetailsSASTA Field Day: Some fun in the sun with a little rum The idea for the SASTA Field Day was born soon after reading an article on the innovative farming strategies that won Brad O’Neill the prestigious award of KwaNalu young farmer of 2021. SASTA members who signed up for the excursion to the Seafield…
DetailsThe programme for the first-ever SASTA webinar held on 20 August 2020 comprised of the two reviews that are traditionally presented on the opening day of congress, namely, Review of the South African sugarcane production season 2019-20 (A Singels, et al) and Ninety-fifth annual review of the milling season in southern Africa2019-20 (S Madho, et…
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