Backing innovation and grower success

Syngenta New Zealand’s most recently appointed Territory Sales Manager, Gart Geurts, may not have been the role for long, but he is happily getting his boots dirty on growers’ properties across a broad range of North Island crops.

Geurts took up the position late July, stepping in to replace Andrew McIntosh who is now the Business Development Manager for Turf and Landscape, another division of the Syngenta New Zealand business.

It’s a big territory, ranging from as far south as Levin to Northland, and including Bay of Plenty, Pukekohe, Taranaki and Waikato.

Geurts’ main focus is on technical and retail support in vegetable crops and sub-tropical fruit like avocados and kiwifruit, with forage crops rounding out the mix.

Previously, he has held a variety of technical and sales roles in the industry, including with Apata Group and Farmlands, and he has a background in adult education as a course facilitator in agribusiness training at the Open Polytech.

His appointment follows hard on the heels of Syngenta’s commercial release of Vibrance Premium as a next-generation fungicide seed treatment for potatoes, and he says it’s a great example of the kind of innovative chemistry the industry needs going forward.

“Growers really need to be supportive of the companies investing in research and development, because that’s where the future of crop protection lies.”

Gary Geurts can be reached at 027 235 1456.