The Team

Ferdi is an agricultural economist with over 20 years of experience. As a founding member and managing director of BFAP, he specialises in agricultural market, trade, and policy analysis, strategic foresight, and value chain analytics. He also holds a position as Professor Extraordinary at the University of Stellenbosch.

Tracy is a Director at BFAP, leading the Commodity Markets and Foresight program. She specialises in commodity market modelling, competitiveness, and international trade. Tracy has extensive international collaboration experience and regularly contributes to international market outlook publications. She holds a PhD in agricultural economics from the University of Pretoria.

Mmatlou is a senior analyst, BFAP director, and research fellow at Stellenbosch University. He specialises in international trade and agricultural policy and has supervised PhD and Masters students. His work covers topics such as non-tariff measures, climate change, and regional trade agreements.

Marnus is BFAP’s Operational Manager and contributes to the Agri-Socio Economic Division. He has extensive experience studying the socio-economic and farm-level impacts of development interventions and technology adoption, focusing on resourcepoor farmers. He holds a PhD in agricultural economics from the University of Pretoria.

Divan is a senior analyst and agricultural economist with more than ten years’ experience in farm-level technical, financial, and investment analysis. He leads BFAP’s Farm and Production Analytics Division and partakes in value chain prioritisation studies in sub-Sahara Africa. He manages the South African cash crop network, coordinated by the agri benchmark group in Germany. He holds a PhD in agricultural economics, focusing on mechanisation trends and adoption of tractor rental markets in sub-Saharan Africa.

Gerhard has deep expertise in agricultural industries and value chain optimisation. As a director of IVIS, he leads innovative projects across sectors like agriculture, minerals, and water. His focus areas include production and resource modelling.

Kandas is an agricultural economist focused on farm-level economics of long-term, export-oriented high-value crops like fruit, nuts, and wine. Her work involves profitability, competitiveness, logistics, and trade flows. Kandas holds a PhD in agricultural economics from Stellenbosch University.

Louw is a Senior Analyst at BFAP, specialising in agricultural value chains, agroprocessing analytics, and international trade. He has over ten years of experience in policy research and has led research units in macro and resource economics.

As an agricultural economist specialising in consumer food and nutrition economics, Hester focuses on consumer behavior, food trends, and food affordability analysis. She has extensive experience in monitoring the cost of healthy eating in South Africa and is a well-established presenter at industry conferences. Hester is a Research Fellow at Stellenbosch University and holds a PhD from the University of Pretoria.

Marion is BFAP’s lead data scientist, responsible for data management and advanced analytics. With a background in mathematical statistics, she enables subject matter experts to derive deep insights from diverse data sources. She is also a Research Fellow at Stellenbosch University.

Sandy has over 20 years of experience in technical and operational management, procurement, and sustainable development. She leads BFAP’s Agri-Socio Economics division, helping clients plan and implement sustainable agriculture programmes across Africa, driving business growth and socio-economic impact.

Albert is a systems specialist at IVIS. His responsibilities include the implementation and maintenance of the IVIS software services and infrastructure as well as data integration and system and process development of the BFAP divisions, their clients, and partners.

Lianda is a data analyst at BFAP within the monitoring and evaluation space. She’s responsible for integrating various data sources to render client-specific interactive dashboards and spatial visualisations.

Dipuo is an analyst in the Commodity Markets and Foresight Division. She is responsible for updating and data management of macro-economic and international price data and the development and maintenance of sectoral partial equilibrium market models. Through model development and research, Dipuo has gained valuable experience related to the cotton industry in South Africa.

Helga is an analyst in the Value Chain Analytics, and Farm and Production Analytics Divisions. Her training as an industrial engineer is used to evaluate and optimise product flows in food value chains as well as farm- and performance analytics.

Khani is an analyst in the commodity markets and foresight division. She manages macroeconomic and international price data, and the development of sectoral partial equilibrium models for selected South African commodities. Her expertise includes the red meat industry and international trade.

Louise is an analyst in the BFAP data science and systems integration division. With a background in industrial engineering, she specialises in simulation modelling, process development, and continuous improvement.

Marilette has worked in the agricultural industry for 14 years, gaining experience in accounting, project finances, human resources, and programme management. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Human Resource Management from the University of Johannesburg.

BFAP’s Swiss Army Knife; with her expertise, Daléne will find the right tool (or person) at the right time to solve your question, challenge, or query. Dalene also holds a PhD in Theology.

Desmond is trained as an agricultural economist with experience working in a range of agricultural industries and countries. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Agricultural Economics at Stellenbosch University, investigating the impact of human behaviour and economic interactions within the context of Foot-and-Mouth Disease outbreaks in South Africa’s beef value chain. Desmond is passionate about South African agriculture, with particular focus on the livestock sector, where most of his skills and expertise are being applied in the BFAP team.

Karen is an agronomist with in-field experience, focusing on fertiliser recommendations and precision agriculture. She is an analyst at BFAP and working towards a PhD in Data Intensive Farm Management.

Wiltrud is an agricultural scientist with over 30 years of experience in crop modelling, GIS, and climate change research. She has led numerous national and international projects and published extensively.