Hortgro appoints Unati Speirs as new director

Speirs holds an MSc in agriculture and is currently a PhD candidate. She has worked in agriculture since 2009 when she started as head of agriculture at the East London Industrial Development Zone. Since then, she has gained extensive experience in senior management in the agriculture sector in South Africa and abroad, where she worked in the US, Japan, and with the United Nations and European Union in Italy.

Speirs is currently a ministerial trustee for the Red Meat Industry Trust of South Africa and a board member of AllJoy Foods. Formerly, she was a vice-chairperson for the International Sugar Organisation based in London and a former chairperson of the UN Environment Programme’s Sustainable Agri-Food Production.

"I hope that my appointment will inspire youth and women to aspire towards careers in agriculture," she says. "Hortgro represents a very important part of South African exports and has world-class technical market access, protocols, and product standards. Horticultural stakeholders around the globe respect Hortgro and being part of its board is a privilege.”