我们最近采访了南非柑橘种植者协会首席执行官贾斯汀·查德威克。在过去的 22 年里，南非柑橘种植者协会一直是贾斯汀的家，但可以肯定地说，农业一直是他生活的一部分，不管怎样。他的职业生涯和生活非常有趣，我们很高兴听到他的职业和个人故事。

自 1999 年以来，您一直担任南非柑橘种植者协会的首席执行官。您是如何从事这一工作的？

我当时在甘蔗种植者协会工作，我的一个大学朋友是柑橘种植大户，他是新成立的（柑橘）组织的董事会成员。他们正在寻找人来领导这个组织，所以他联系了我，问我是否有兴趣从糖业转向柑橘业。我答应了，报了名，参加了面试，很幸运地得到了这份工作。

您是如何进入甘蔗行业的？

我是一名农业经济学家。我在大学学习农业经济学，并获得了硕士学位。我曾在一家农业研究站工作，并在一所农业学院讲课几年。之后，我申请了 Cane Growers 的工作，并在那里担任经济学家，然后逐步晋升。我在那里工作了大约 16 年左右。所以我在那里也待了很长时间。

你对这个行业有什么兴趣？你为什么决定主修农业经济学？

我在农场长大。我父亲是甘蔗种植户。所以我一直对农业很感兴趣，并渴望进入这个行业。但我最初希望从事兽医学。我想成为一名兽医，但第一年我表现不太好。你必须获得一定的成绩，而我没能达到这个要求，所以我不得不选择放弃兽医学理学学士学位。所以我研究了经济学，并非常喜欢它。

您从事这项工作已经很长时间了。哪些技能帮助您在这一职位上取得成功？

The most important thing about working in a grower association, in other words working for farmers, is the ability to understand people. I think it’s called servant leadership. Where you work for people but at the same time they expect you to show them some leadership in terms of strategic direction and implementation.

It’s helped that I’ve been able to get along well with farmers. I love farmers. They’re the backbone of society, I believe. I’ve always enjoyed being with farmers and working for them. They’re a special group of people. They’ll be loyal to you and stand behind you as long as you perform. But they’ll tell you straight when you’re not performing. They are very direct as a group. I like that I know where I stand at any time.

I wouldn’t say I’ve always pleased every farmer in the country, but that’s also part of the job. Whatever decisions you take sometimes there will be farmers that aren’t happy with those decisions because you have to take big decisions at times. But as long as they’re well thought through and have the desired outcome of being beneficial to the industry as a whole, people can recognize that.

The other thing is being able to recognize talent and surround yourself with good talent. I’ve got fantastic people working at the Citrus Growers Association. I’ve got staff that have mostly been there 10 years or more. Once they get there, they stay, which is great. I personally believe in retaining staff and building them up to become real experts in the field they’re in. I know other people believe that you should have a steady rotation and bring new ideas in the whole time. I must say, I think you only do that if the present staff aren’t exactly performing and sort of recycling themselves, as it were. It’s all around the people in a service industry like ours. If you get on well with your clients, the farmers, and if you build your staff up to also have the same values, then you get an organization that really performs.

Do you think you’ve met all of your career goals?

That’s a good question. When I was at Cane Growers obviously the highest post there was Executive Director. I was a director there so I was one of three that probably would have been in line for that post. I guess I always saw that as the top position of an agrarian association, so I guess you could say I have.

How has the industry changed since you took this post?

It’s changed in terms of the products we export. We are still very much an orange dominated industry. Navel and Valencia oranges still make up the large proportion of our fruit. But it’s not as dominant as it was in 1999. So in those days grapefruit was the second biggest. Now it’s not. And lemons and soft citrus (easy peelers) were very small segments of the total industry. Now lemons and easy peelers are becoming much more significant. And grapefruit is much less significant. Oranges as a percentage have dropped off. In total volume they are still significant. Because we’ve grown so much, as a percentage they are less significant.

How have you changed since taking this post?

One area is confidence. You always wonder if you can lead an organization or lead an industry. We’ve proven that we can, so I think that helps with the confidence side.

What are your goals for the organization?

I’ve only got about 3 or 4 years left so I don’t want to set too many new goals. When you get to a point where the industry is quite settled, but still growing in terms of volume, there are two areas that we need to put attention to. One is logistics. The ports are a mess. They need a new way of doing things. There’s a monopoly port owner and it’s actually run by the state. The World Bank recently did a study of 350 ports around the world and our three ports came 347, 348, and 349. They really score badly. At the moment the ports have stopped operating in the last 4 or 5 days because they’ve had a cyber-attack. They seem to blunder from one crisis to the next. We really need some private sector involvement in the ports which is a big goal to try and get that in place. I think everyone agrees it has to happen, it’s just how it will happen. The backlash from the unions is also an issue. And then the second (goal) is just market access. Finding new markets for our citrus and optimizing our present markets. We’ve got a lot of additional growth coming in and we need to find markets to absorb that additional growth.

What are your personal goals outside of the association?

I’ve always done a lot of sports. I used to paddle. We’ve got two signature paddling races in South Africa. I’ve completed 10 of each of those. I also used to run. There’s a big marathon called the Two Oceans Marathon in Cape Town. I did eleven of those. There’s Comrades Marathon which is a 95 kilometer run between two cities here, which I’ve done twice. I think those were my goals – I don’t necessarily do well in any of them – but just to compete and to complete them, was always my goal.

现在，我想在非洲当地多旅行一点。我去过世界各地很多地方，但在非洲本身就不多。未来三四年我就要退休了，所以我和我的妻子准备在退休后多去旅行。然后我只想享受家庭生活。我有一个女儿和一个儿子。我女儿现在已经结婚了，她将在 12 月生下第一个孙子。我儿子是一名护林员。由于 COVID 对酒店业的影响，很多护林员目前都失业了，而他仍在努力站稳脚跟。所以另一项任务是帮助他开始他的职业生涯。

和贾斯汀·查德威克的谈话很愉快。显然，他非常认真地对待自己作为仆人式领导者的角色。我们祝愿他在领导南非柑橘种植者协会及其他事务时继续取得成功。