Dr Anél Botes

Although she describes herself as a lifelong city child, born and raised in Bellville, Dr Anél Botes opted to study Viticulture and Oenology at Stellenbosch University. “I wanted to do something where I wouldn’t be in an office all day,” she says. “Agriculture caught my attention because I like being outside.”

The romance of winemaking also attracted her. “It sounded wonderful, even though I didn’t drink wine. I only started drinking wine in my fourth year,” she laughs. “Ultimately, I found the viticulture part more interesting, because you can’t make good wine without good quality grapes.”

Botes graduated with a BScAgric in 2002. As she had an ARC bursary, she joined the ARC Infruitec-Nietvoorbij as a table-grape viticulturist. She subsequently obtained her MSc in Horticultural Science from Stellenbosch University in 2007.

“I enjoyed working with table grapes and learnt a lot,” she says. “But I wanted to work on other crops as well.”

She moved to the Postharvest and Agro-Processing Technologies Division in 2015, where she now mainly does postharvest research on pome and stone fruit. In 2023, she completed her PhD on the browning of white table grapes.

While she studies a range of crops, Botes thinks climacteric fruit like pome and stone fruit that ripen after harvest are more interesting than non-climacteric fruit. “I like how we can manipulate certain aspects, such as gas concentrations in cold rooms, to maintain fruit quality,” she elaborates.

As a postharvest researcher, Botes finds herself spending more time inside than she envisioned when embarking on an agricultural career.

“Sometimes I feel a little disconnected from what happens in the orchard. We now try to include a preharvest component — to link pre- and postharvest — in the projects we propose for funding,” she says. “So, I hope to get outside more!”