Founded in 2001 by family farmers, Jose Ramon Rituerto and Paco Casallo, Haciendasbio is the first producer of organic fruit and vegetables in Spain.
Jose and Paco’s goal was to produce healthy food by ecologically sustainable farming methods. Today, Haciendasbio produces over 2,400 acres of organic fruit and vegetables on more than thirty farms.
Last week the Grapa team attended the opening of HaciendasBio’s state-of-the-art, ecologically sustainable packing facilities, located in the Ecological Park in Merida. Each production line will produce 50 – 60 tonnes a day. At present the facility has four production lines for stone fruit and one line for grapes, which will increase to four production lines of grapes in the future.
In June, HaciendasBio’s new ecological park will be inaugurated in Merida. The park, spread over 400 hectares, will host the new production center of HaciendasBio. The handling and packaging center will have an area of 10,500 square meters and 180 employees. The company estimates that the annual production will be 20,000 tons of fruit including our ARRA Varieties, and 12,700 of vegetables.
In addition, the park will have a production building of almost 9,500 square meters, a refrigerated silo of 682 square meters, and a research center in which 100 specialized technicians will work on the development of knowledge about organic biodynamic agriculture.
Haciendas Bio grow the ARRA varieties with great success, reaching fantastic results. It is clear that this is due to the varieties’ ease of growing and their characteristics which enable them to excel when grown organically under HaciendasBio’s expertise and professionalism.
The Grapa team hopes to visit the facility again in the coming season to see the ARRA varieties coming off the new production lines.
Olmi’s first de-leafing machine in California was developed by the Olmi family in Italy. The leaf removing machine was imported to California by Giumarra Vineyards in order to be demonstrated by the Olmi team Sergio and Antonella Olmi at the beginning of the season. The machine’s impressive results received much praise and positive feedback from the Giumarra technical team and farm managers. The machine’s purpose is to remove leaves from around the bunches to ensure bunch exposure to light.
The machine saves substantially on manpower needed for leaf removal and gives results very similar to manual leaf removal.
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This variety has large, elongated, intense cherry-coloured berries. With excellent sugar-acid balance, cherry flavour and sensational crunch, ARD 36 CHERRY CRUSH™ is a variety that delights in appearance, taste and eating experience. Proven to be fully rain resistant, the variety also has excellent fertility and exceptional storage ability. It is the ultimate long shipping variety with the best shelf life in the industry. CHERRY CRUSH™ has it all!
Discover the ultimate red variety with ARD 35 – FIRE CRUNCH™. This early-mid variety boasts a unique fire-red colour and crunchy, large berries with a low acid level and well-balanced taste that provide a supreme eating quality. It’s a fertile and easy-to-grow variety with full uniform colour that stays red on the vine, and doesn’t get dark over time, making harvest timing very flexible. This variety also withstands rain and offers unparalleled hanging ability, cold storage capability and shelf-life capacity.
This early red seedless variety offers an exceptional eating quality. It has large, crunchy berries, a medium sized bunch and boasts an excellent natural, full, deep red colour. Although it ripens at the same time as Flame, ARRA Passion Fire surpasses its early counterpart in all other parameters. Good productivity, extraordinary hanging ability, shipping durability and shelf life make it a choice early red.
This very early red variety with its large, sweet berries, ripens naturally 10 days before Flame. The striking full red colour, together with extreme crunch and harmonious flavour make this red a must-have variety. Fire Kiss has proven to be very fertile and grower friendly, as well as bearing great post-harvest and shipping qualities.