Sun World to release 'explosive' grape varieties in Chile - FreshFruitPortal.com

Sun World to release 'explosive' grape varieties in Chile

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Sun World to release 'explosive' grape varieties in Chile

California-headquartered Sun World is planning to release two new table grape varieties in Chile by 2017, which developers say will 'explode' in the coming years with the full support of an extensive global technical support network.Ā uva_4850506[1]

Since the grower, marketer and breeder entered the business some 40 years ago, it has been establishing itself in many of the world's major grape-producing regions and intends to grow this presence further, as much of the industry increasing looks to proprietary varieties to replace more traditional ones.

Four such varieties are currently in commercial production in Chile - Superior Seedless, Midnight Beauty, Sable Seedless, and Scarlotta Seedless.

The company's regional licensing manager for South America, Carolina Uquillas, said while the cultivars were seeing great success at the moment, it was initially a slow start as proprietary varieties had not been common in the South American country.

"Sun World was the first breeding program that came here with these new varieties, and it was hard because at that time no one really talked much about new varieties," Uquillas told www.freshfruitportal.com.

The first vineyards of the black seedless mid-season Midnight Beauty were planted around a decade ago, and it has since become Sun World's most heavily exported brand variety from Chile. The organization now plans to establish a 12-month supply of the variety from both hemispheres.

Amid the success of the four exclusive cultivars, Sun World is due to release two more over the next couple of years that just completed the quarantine stage - the late season green variety Autumncrisp and fall season black grape Adora Seedless.

"We are currently in that process and I think this year we will be able to release some plants of Adora, then next year we will have enough of the other," Uquillas said.

"By 2017 we should have hundreds of hectares. We already have orders for those plants because people have seen our products in California and they are very interested. They're just waiting for us to release the plants."

Sun World's director of variety development for table grapes and stonefruit Terry Bacon was also optimistic for the future of the Autumncrisp and Adora Seedless varieties in Chile, saying they would strongly appeal to both producers and consumers.

"Those two particular variety brands are just going to explode over the next few years," Bacon said.

"Autumncrisp is a late season green grape, that like the name implies has a very crispy juicy texture. For the consumer it has great flavor and texture, and for the grower it just epitomizesĀ the 21st century variety in that it requires very little hand labor, very little chemical imput, it's naturally sized, and it has a huge production. The market has a demand for this kind of product."

"The Adora Seedless is a black grape that comes in way back on the end of the season. It has a large size, is very grower friendly, and has a very low seed trace."

Adora Seedless is currently under commercial production in Australia and Israel, and is at the same stage in Europe as in Chile.

Public varieties 'coming to an end'

Bacon also highlighted how growers throughout the world were gradually becoming more and more interested in proprietary varieties, as the prices of traditional cultivars tended to fall.

"The quality of public varieties is getting worse, because everyone that has the variety is trying to pick it first before it ruins the price, and if they can get it in before the price drops through the floor they can make money. A lot of people on these commodity varieties are just scraping the line of profitability," he said.

"You need to be with the program - the days of the public variety are really coming towards an end. They'll always be there but it's getting more and more difficult.

"A lot of the time the market wants Thompson, but there are so many of them that buyers can pick and chose. But when you have something with a brand name that the buyers know and really want, then you've got leverage. The consumers are willing to pay more for a great product as well."

Sun World has three licenses for its varieties - one for nurseries, one for growers, and one for marketers like Unifrutti and Subsole, which the growers are obliged to use to distribute the branded fruit.

It is by using this business model and a global network of offices that the company could keep track of production and work to keep prices at a reasonable level, Uquillas said.

"By doing this we are aware of which market our varieties are going to and the volumes. Each licensing manager reports this information to the main office so they have all the information at their side, and they can see if they need to increase production or things like that.

"They are thinking about the price and trying to make sure that it never goes down - keeping the variety as a premium product. This is the way we are able to maintain these varieties. For varieties that are available to everyone, the prices are getting worse over the years."

Caps are also placed on the hectarageĀ for the proprietary varieties to ensure volumes don't get too high and thus push market prices down.

Trials the 'only way' to solve problems

To complement its breeding program, Sun World also offers a comprehensive global technical support network for producers growing its varieties.

The multinational was one of the first firms to develop the licensing model used today, but now that other players are on the scene it is necessary to add something extra from the competitors, according to the company's applied varietal research manager Hovav Weksler who heads up the support program.

"Now that we have all these other companies, the growers are not looking only at the variety. The first thing is you have to have a good variety, but any variety will have challenges," he said.

"The owner of the variety is usually the one who will have the most knowledge of it, and Sun World has an advantage in this as we're also a producer of our own varieties."

Weksler explained technical assistance was important when the same variety was being grown in various regions throughout the world as performance could differ greatly depending on a number of factors, such as the climate.

"We see, in many cases, differences in the performances between what we have in California, and what we have in Europe where there's a lot of rainfall, what we have in South Africa, Australia, Brazil where there's a tropical climate. And once you begin to distribute varieties to all these places you begin to see things you didn't see in California," he said.

Sun World has a team of technical advisors who travel globally to help growers with any challenges they might be facing with the varieties, and can set up trials in several countries to find a solution.

"Even the best varieties ever will have challenges - sometimes the flavor will not be as you want it, or the color, sometimes uniformity will not be there - because it's a biological thing, it's not like a machine that produces the same thing every year," Weksler said.

He said that not setting up trials in response to problems and offering recommendations to the growers would essentially be the same as handing over the variety and telling them to do the best they can.

"We have someone in Australia, who is responsible for New Zealand and that area, we have one in Europe for Spain, Italy and Portugal, I live in Israel," he said.

A recent Sun World grower seminar in Paine, Chile

A recent Sun World grower seminar in Paine, Chile

"So we have a network of agronomists that all share the same vision - if we have a problem that needs to be fixed, we are doing as many experiments as possible so we can compare the results.

"Now that doesn't come naturally - it's not obvious - but this is the only way that you can solve a problem without a gut feeling. A solid solution that translates into a protocol and a recommendation for the grower from us."

In the last year around 60 to 70 trials were conducted, with around half carried out in ways that could be analyzed scientifically, and the other half observational.

Sun World's technical advisors come to Chile twice a year and also hold an annual seminar to speak to growers about all the work that has been done over the previous year. This seminar includes information about testing of new varieties that are still yet to be released, such as Autumncrisp and Adora Seedless.

"Everyone is always very hungry for technical help. They're professionals and they like this kind of thing. They like to hear 'if you do this, then this will happen'. It wasn't always this way, but now they're hungry for new ideas," Bacon said.

Photo: www.shutterstock.com

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