Eight lines of work, one operating standard.

Your buyer in Hamburg has changed the spec sheet. The EU has revised the chlorpyrifos MRL effective Q3. Your GlobalG.A.P. v6 audit is in six months and the plant-protection documentation is incomplete. The SADC EPA tariff schedule has moved on one of your minor-volume lines. Any one of these is workable. All four at once is a project.

Auctus Agri works with citrus, deciduous fruit, table grape, avocado, wine, and specialist-crop exporters across South Africa and SADC on the regulatory, certification, and commercial-spec dimensions of selling into Europe, the UK, the Middle East, and Asia.

What an engagement looks like

Diagnostic phase. Two to three weeks. Site visit, current-state documentation review, buyer-spec comparison, MRL and GlobalG.A.P. gap analysis. Produces a written diagnostic note with prioritised gaps and rough cost-to-close estimates.

Plan phase. One to two weeks. Translation of the diagnostic into a 90-day farm-level action plan, dated and costed, with named owners and a weekly check-in cadence.

Optional implementation oversight. Monthly or fortnightly progress review against the plan, with escalation of gaps before they become audit failures.

What we cover

EU MRL revisions and active-ingredient transitions · GlobalG.A.P. IFA v6 readiness, including Option 2 cooperative-scale group certification · GRASP · SADC, SACU, and AfCFTA rules of origin · EU–SADC EPA tariff schedules · SPS measures and phytosanitary protocols (PPECB, DALRRD) · Buyer-specific spec sheets · Traceability and cold-chain documentation · HS classification and tariff-code optimisation · Seasonal-window competitive analysis.

Pricing. Engagements are typically scoped as fixed-fee work packages within a ranged quote provided after a 30-minute scoping call. Pricing is on enquiry.

Book a scoping call for Trade & Export →

Most commercial farm turnaround opportunities come down to four numbers: yield per hectare, input cost per kilogram, post-harvest loss rate, and EBITDA per orchard block or production unit. The operational team usually knows two of the four. The board usually wants all four, plus a credible plan to move them.

Auctus Agri diagnoses commercial farms and agribusinesses with a method developed across eighteen years of in-country fieldwork. The output is a written diagnostic — typically 20 to 30 pages — that another professional can replicate and that an operations director, lender, or PE sponsor can defend to their own organisation.

What an engagement looks like

Site visit and data pull. Two to five days on site, depending on operation size. Walk the operation, sit with the team, review three seasons of yield, input, and financial data. Calibrate equipment where access allows.

Benchmarking and write-up. One to two weeks. Quantitative benchmarking against the relevant peer set. A Power BI dashboard of the four core metrics where data quality permits. Identification of three to five highest-leverage operational adjustments.

90-day priority plan. Dated actions, named owners, weekly cadence, defined success metrics. Optional follow-up review at 90 days, by separate engagement.

What we cover

Agronomy and rotation review · Soil and water testing pattern review · Irrigation scheduling and pivot-system calibration · Crop protection program review · Fertiliser-program review · Equipment calibration · Labour utilisation and seasonal scheduling · Post-harvest loss measurement · Cold-chain integrity · Input cost benchmarking · Yield-per-hectare benchmarking · Block-level or paddock-level profitability · Management reporting and KPI structure.

Pricing. Diagnostics are typically scoped as fixed-fee work packages, with the fee determined by operation scale, geographic distance, and depth of historical data review required. Pricing is on enquiry.

Book a scoping call for Diagnostics →

The dominant donor-funded story in African agriculture for the next decade is smallholder commercialisation under climate stress. Programme design, baseline measurement, mid-term evaluation, endline analysis, and MEL system design all sit within that narrative. They need to be done with methodological rigour, on TOR-defined timelines, and within standard short-term consultant frameworks.

Auctus Agri delivers applied research and evaluation work for DFIs, implementing partners, and research programmes operating in southern and eastern African agriculture. The methodological foundation combines eighteen years of in-country operational experience with the firm's two in-house applied research programmes on EU trade-preference utilisation (Critical Realist methodology) and on blockchain-enabled trust mechanisms for smallholder farmers.

What an engagement looks like

TOR engagement and design. Initial conversation with the TOR-holder to confirm scope, methodology, deliverables, and timeline. Where the TOR is open, we propose an explicit methodological framework.

Instrument design and field data collection. Quantitative survey instruments, qualitative interview protocols, focus group designs, and participatory rural appraisal where appropriate. In-country collection with appropriate enumerator training and quality control.

Analysis and synthesis. Mixed-methods analysis combining quantitative descriptive and inferential statistics (R, Python, or Power BI where appropriate) with qualitative thematic analysis. Comparative Multi-Scalar analysis applied where the engagement supports it.

Reporting and stakeholder feedback. Peer-review-grade written reporting at TOR-defined depth. Stakeholder validation workshops where required. Final reports delivered in donor format (World Bank, AfDB, IFAD, FAO, USAID, GIZ, AGRA, CGIAR centres each have specific conventions).

Methodological approach

The methodological default is mixed-methods, with quantitative and qualitative streams designed to triangulate rather than to replicate. Where the research question concerns institutional or structural causation, Critical Realist methodology is the default frame — recognising that observed outcomes are produced by the interaction of generative mechanisms that are not always directly observable.

All methodological choices are stated explicitly in the proposal, in the inception report, and in the final deliverable. The reader should be able to replicate the analysis with access to the same data sources.

Areas of work

Baseline and endline studies for agricultural value-chain programmes · Mid-term evaluations of climate-smart agriculture interventions · MEL system design for multi-country agricultural programmes · Value-chain assessments (citrus, deciduous fruit, table grapes, vegetables, smallholder cropping, dairy, industrial hemp, medicinal cannabis) · Smallholder market-access studies · Cooperative readiness diagnostics · Trade and trade-policy research · Climate adaptation research in field-level cropping systems · Agricultural traceability and trust mechanism studies · Plant breeding and varietal research.

Pricing. DFI engagements are typically conducted on day-rate terms within the relevant short-term consultant framework. Fixed-fee scoping is available where the TOR supports it. Pricing is on enquiry.

Discuss a TOR →

Sometimes a project does not need a four-week diagnostic. Sometimes a deal team, a desk, or a journalist needs sixty minutes with senior practitioners who have done the work and will speak plainly to the question on the table. Auctus Agri delivers structured expert calls and briefings for buyers of senior judgment on African agricultural topics.

How a call is structured

Pre-call briefing note. The client submits a one-page brief or three to five questions. We produce a short pre-call note — 200 to 400 words — confirming scope, flagging anything outside the relevant expertise, and stating any disclosure conflicts.

60-minute call. Zoom or Microsoft Teams, recorded if the client requires. Where the client's compliance framework requires it, the call runs on the network's platform (GLG, AlphaSights, Guidepoint, Third Bridge, Dialectica) under the network's contractual terms.

One-page follow-up summary. Within 48 hours of the call, we produce a written one-page summary capturing key points, with sources cited where the call touched on published material. The summary belongs to the client.

Topics covered

South African citrus export competitiveness · EU MRL revisions affecting African fresh-produce exports · GlobalG.A.P. v6 transition for African producers · EU–SADC EPA agrifood trade · SADC table grape, avocado, deciduous fruit competitive positioning · African commercial cannabis cultivation, licensing, and export · Industrial hemp production and value chains · Tobacco varietal research and breeding · Smallholder commercialisation programming · Agricultural traceability and blockchain trust mechanisms · Climate-smart agricultural systems in southern Africa · Agri-PE diligence on African operating companies · Commodity-trader supply-side intelligence.

Pricing. Direct expert calls are quoted per call with a standard rate for one-hour engagements and an expedited rate where turnaround is shorter than 72 hours. Expert-network calls are billed per the network's platform terms.

Book a call →

Standards exist on paper. Audits happen in fields and packhouses. Training is the bridge — and most cooperative and producer-level audit failures are training failures one or two seasons before they show up on audit day. Auctus Agri delivers structured, GlobalG.A.P.-accredited training programmes for farmers, cooperative quality management staff, and operational workforces preparing for buyer audits or regulatory inspection.

What we train on

GlobalG.A.P. IFA v6 readiness. Structured preparation for cooperative Option 2 group certification and individual Option 1 producer certification. Plant protection and worker health and safety are the priority control-point areas, calibrated to the literacy and language of the producer base.

Plant protection & pesticide management. Safe handling, spray-record discipline, integrated pest management, MRL alignment for EU-destined produce. Demonstration-based where literacy constraints require it.

Worker health & safety induction. PPE-issue protocols, worker-induction discipline, on-farm hygiene, seasonal-worker training. Including the documented training records auditors look for.

Quality management system training. For cooperative QM staff and producer-level supervisors. Member-by-control-point matrix discipline, internal-inspection protocols, audit-day logistics.

Specialist-crop production training. Tobacco, industrial hemp, and medicinal cannabis cultivation training drawn from in-house breeding and field-trial research. Crop selection, soil management, integrated pest management, precision irrigation.

Audit-day preparation. Practice audits, documentation walk-throughs, and structured rehearsal four to eight weeks before the formal audit.

Formats

Cooperative workshops. Multi-day, on-site, attendance-tracked, designed for the producer base of a specific cooperative. Outputs include the training-record evidence that the audit itself looks for.

On-farm training. Producer-level, in-field, calibrated to the operation's specific crops and the buyer or audit standard ahead.

Train-the-trainer. For donor-funded programmes that need scalable training capacity inside the implementing partner or the local cooperative federation. We build the curriculum and certify the local trainers.

Literacy- and language-appropriate delivery. Photo-based and demonstration-based training where written materials are not workable. Local-language adaptation where the producer base requires it.

Who books training

Smallholder cooperatives preparing for GlobalG.A.P. audit · Commercial growers preparing for buyer-spec or retailer audit · DFI-funded smallholder commercialisation programmes building producer capacity · Exporter cooperatives standing up Option 2 group certification · Cannabis and hemp operations training cultivation workforces · Family-owned agribusinesses building succession-grade operational discipline.

Pricing. Training engagements are scoped as fixed-fee work packages, with the fee determined by group size, geographic distance, language adaptation requirements, and depth of follow-up. Pricing is on enquiry; ranged quote within 48 hours of a 30-minute scoping call.

Book a scoping call for Training →

The four-number diagnostic produces a 90-day priority plan. The precision-agriculture engagement is what runs after the plan — the embedded analytics, automation, and field-trial work that turns one good season into a repeatable production system. It is a different shape of engagement: continuous rather than one-off, infrastructure-led rather than report-led, and measured against multi-season trend lines rather than a board-meeting deadline.

Auctus Agri delivers four streams inside this service line, scoped together or independently.

Stream A — Farm & agribusiness analytics

Ongoing data work for commercial operations that have outgrown spreadsheet-based management reporting. Power BI dashboards built against the operation's actual data sources (financial systems, irrigation logs, harvest records, packhouse data, climate records). Monthly or quarterly KPI updates and benchmark commentary. CRM administration and integration with farm-management platforms. The deliverable is the dashboard plus the reading — what changed, why, and what the operations team should do about it.

Stream B — Farm automation & precision systems

Specification, calibration, and implementation oversight for farm automation. Irrigation automation (pivot scheduling, variable-rate irrigation, soil-moisture-triggered scheduling); equipment calibration for planters, sprayers, and harvesters; precision-input mapping; variable-rate application protocols; and the operational discipline that lets automated systems actually save inputs rather than complicate operations. The team has worked equipment calibration across two decades of commercial farm advisory; the precision-input work draws on advanced data-science capability across the network.

Stream C — IoT & sensor networks

Sensor-network design and deployment for working farms. Soil moisture and temperature sensors at depth; in-field weather stations; plant-health imaging and remote sensing; cold-chain telemetry from packhouse to port; livestock tracking and herd-management sensors; and the data architecture that connects sensor outputs to the management dashboard. The design discipline is to specify only what the operation will actually read — sensor data that no-one reviews is overhead, not insight.

Stream D — On-farm field trials & experiments

Structured field-trial design and analysis for operations testing varieties, agronomic protocols, or new crops at commercial scale. Standard Operating Procedure development for trial design, plot layout, treatment randomisation, data collection, and statistical analysis. Multi-season trial management. Varietal trial design for tobacco, industrial hemp, medicinal cannabis, and selected horticultural crops drawn from in-house plant-breeding research. The output is data the operation can act on — and SOPs the team can use to run subsequent trials without external support.

Who books this

Commercial operations that have implemented a four-number diagnostic and want the analytics work to continue · Mid-size and large commercial farms scaling precision-agriculture infrastructure · Agri-PE portfolio companies wanting standardised dashboards across multiple holdings · Specialist-crop operations (hemp, cannabis, tobacco) running varietal or agronomic trials · Cooperatives standing up shared sensor networks or shared trial programmes · DFI-funded programmes scaling precision-agriculture pilots across multi-country smallholder bases.

Engagement shape

Stand-up phase. Two to four weeks. Data audit, sensor scoping, dashboard design, trial design. Produces a written infrastructure plan and a costed roadmap.

Build phase. Four to twelve weeks. Dashboard build, sensor deployment, automation specification, trial set-up. Variable by stream and scale.

Ongoing review. Monthly or quarterly. Dashboard refresh, sensor data review, trial mid-season check-ins. Typical retainer band is 4–16 hours per month per stream.

Pricing. Stand-up phase is fixed-fee. Build phase is fixed-fee within a ranged quote per stream. Ongoing review is monthly retainer. All pricing is on enquiry; ranged quote within 48 hours of a 30-minute scoping call.

Book a scoping call for Precision & Field Trials →

South African and SADC medicinal cannabis and industrial hemp remain regulatorily distinct from mainstream horticulture — the licensing regime, the buyer set, the certification standards, and the cultivation discipline are all specialist knowledge. Auctus Agri operates in this specialism at a Lead depth: multi-year cultivation advisory, in-house varietal breeding research, and direct participation in the industry's international events (Cannabis Business Expo, Zurich 2021; Cape Town 2022, 2024).

This line covers cultivation, licensing pathways, and export-market analysis. It does not cover retail dispensary operations, downstream consumer-brand development, or recreational-market entry — those are different professions.

What an engagement looks like

Cultivation planning. Site assessment, cultivar selection, protocol design (indoor, glasshouse, or field). Draws on the firm's in-house plant-breeding research on tobacco, hemp, and medicinal cannabis. Delivered as a written cultivation plan with SOPs.

GACP readiness. Preparation for Good Agricultural and Collection Practice (WHO GACP) compliance — the standard European medicinal cannabis buyers require. Section-by-section gap analysis, documentation upgrade, and audit-day preparation. Overlaps with GlobalG.A.P. for industrial hemp destined for regulated markets.

Licensing pathway analysis. Written analysis of the applicable licensing framework — SAHPRA medicinal cannabis licences, hemp cultivation permits, export permits, and destination-market import requirements. Application-support work is scoped separately.

Varietal trial design. Multi-season varietal trials for commercial operations selecting cultivars for a target market. SOP-led design, treatment randomisation, statistical analysis. Sits inside the Precision Agriculture & Field Trials line and draws directly on this specialism.

Export-market analysis. Buyer-side landscape work — European medicinal cannabis importers, industrial hemp derivative buyers, biomass and fibre markets. Written market analysis with named buyers, price-band indications, and route-to-market options.

What we cover

Medicinal cannabis cultivation planning · Industrial hemp cultivation and processing · GACP readiness and audit preparation · SAHPRA licence-application support · Export-market analysis (EU, UK, Middle East) · Varietal trial design and management · Cultivation SOP development · Cultivation-workforce training (in conjunction with the Training & Compliance line) · Compliance-documentation systems for regulated operations · Biomass and derivative market intelligence.

Pricing. Engagements are scoped as fixed-fee work packages within a ranged quote. Multi-season retainer arrangements are available for operations in the cultivation-scale-up phase. All pricing is on enquiry.