FABI welcomed a group of tree growers from Argentina visiting South Africa to acquaint themselves with the local forestry industry. The 17 visitors are all commercial tree growers from the Entre Rios Province area of Argentina with plantations of mainly Eucalyptus grandis varying in size from 300 to 10,000ha.

FABI entomologist Dr. Brett Hurley showed the group around the biocontrol facility explaining how the research done at FABI, through the Tree Protection Co-operative Programme (TPCP), is combatting pests and diseases ravaging the local forestry industry. Specific attention was paid to the Eucalyptus gall wasp, Leptocybe invasa that is ravaging the Argentinian Eucalyptus plantations and the impact on this pest by the release in the field of its biocontrol agent, Selitrichodes neseri.