登录查看更多内容

SUCCESSION publication revisited

Lucentlands Media

Agricultural Content Creators - Agricultural News & Insights - 2024 Digital Agricultural Communicator of the Year

发布日期: 2022年11月16日

+ 关注

Louise Brodie

Director at Lucentlands Media and agricultural writer

SUCCESSION: Published in 2019 by the Citrus Growers' Association of South Africa

Written and produced by Louise Brodie

Much water and a pandemic have passed under the bridge since 2019, so the announcement of the forthcoming 2023 Citrus Summit has reminded me of the the excitement and achievement of launching this publication at the previous Citrus Summit.

Farming businesses are regularly passed from one generation to the next and ensuring that this transition runs smoothly not always without its challenges. The citrus industry considered this topic worth investigating and in 2018 Citrus Growers’ Association commissioned me to write another publication, this time to visit the owners of family-owned citrus farms throughout South Africa to hear directly from farming families how they approach and implement succession planning. The result was the CGA publication named SUCCESSION, which was launched at the Citrus Summit held in Port Elizabeth in March 2019. It was quite a rush to get this completed in time, but we made it just in time!

(Succession was the seventh publication that I have written on behalf of the citrus industry since 2005. The previous publications are listed below with links to the South African citrus industry’s Citrus Resource Warehouse?https://crw.org.za/?)

It was a remarkable privilege to be granted interviews about this important and personal issue with some of the country’s biggest and oldest, as well as some of the newest, citrus producers. I was warmly received by everyone that I spoke to, and the growers and their family members were friendly and generously shared their time, wisdom and values on the topic. As the values of family and business can differ, many families have implemented formal guiding principles for succession. It was interesting to learn that for the younger generation, walking into the family business is not always a given, as some family have family constitutions which determine the provisos of succession and joining the family business.

Although time has moved on, I remain very grateful to the growers who shared their personal stories with me, and also to CGA for the opportunity to write and publish this remarkable collection of interviews.

Once a publication is completed and published, the unanswered question remains whether people will read the publication. Thus, it was very heartening when my business partner?Dewald Kirsten?told me that the publication is currently on display in the foyer of the CRI offices in Nelspruit. He spotted this earlier this year when he visited CRI when?Lucentlands Media?was in Nelspruit to film a range of informational video productions on behalf of CRI.

I have tagged all the people that I spoke to who are on LinkedIn below. Thank you again for your time and this also provides the opportunity to see a digital version of the Succession publication in the link below:?