Our feet have barely touched the ground this month, with visits by the Grapa team to both England and Egypt. In this edition, we update you on our recent travels and bring some exciting news from India.
Egypt ARRA™ Field Day
June 11th saw the first ARRA Field Day of the summer season. Held at Technogreen’s ‘El Kata Farm’ in Egypt and hosted by Nile Fruit Company, the ARRA Field Day in Egypt brought together ARRA growers, not only from all over Egypt, but also from Italy and Spain.
This year, as every year, the Grapa team participated in the ARRA Field Day in Egypt to see the first ARRA varieties to ripen in the Mediterranean region. As well as visiting the commercial plantations, the team were very excited to observe for the first time, the new, very early ARRA selections to ripen in Egypt.
Grapa and NFC were proud to introduce the participants to the first harvest of the new, very early selections.
The participants enjoyed the opportunity to see the encouraging ARRA selections at the ARRA Field Day in Egypt; white ARRA 9A-3+1, red ARRA 7A-40+1 and black ARRA 24A-15+3 and were very impressed with what they saw. There will be another opportunity to view these selections in California in July, where they will be presented at the early ARRA Field Day.
ARRA 7A-40+1
The first red selection to ripen in the new, early ARRA collection; naturally ripening two weeks ahead of Flame seedless, this selection is very fertile, self-colouring, with large berries and good eating quality.
ARRA 9A-3+1
The first white ARRA selection to ripen in the new, early collection. It naturally ripens with Early Sweet™, is fertile with large berries and a shiny, creamy colour. When ripe, a nice hint of muscat flavour comes through. This early selection is shot berry free and has an excellent shelf-life and transportation ability.
ARRA 24A-15+3
So early and delicious, this early, black selection with a very attractive shape and bunch, ripens at the same time as ARRA Sugar Drop (ARRA 30), reaching a full black colour and has excellent shelf life and storage ability. This selection is one of a trilogy of new, early blacks which ripen one week apart from each other.
Field day commercial varieties
The growers were inspired by the large commercial ARRA plantation at Technogreen farms, where in addition to the selections, the attendees saw first-hand, the varieties ARRA Passion Fire™ (ARRA 29), ARRA Sugar Drop™ (ARRA 30) and ARRA 24 which are produced commercially in El Katta’s vineyards.
ARRA Passion Fire™ (ARRA 29)
Already well-known in the industry, ARRA Passion Fire produced its third-year crop with great success due to Eng. Fayze Dowidar’s improvement of his culture practice, resulting in a very profitable section in the farm.
ARRA Sugar Drop™ (ARRA 30)
The fourth crop of this white variety which completes the chain after Early Sweet, filling a great nitch. Eng. Fayze developed and improved the best protocol suited for the Egyptian environment with great success.
ARRA 24
This variety, which is as early as Early Sweet, has been grown and improved by Mokhles Harraz, owner of Agrostar and Magdy Mansour, chairman of Technogreen, to be a very successful early black to export. Its low chilling and good fertility challenges the growers to export as early as possible.
We would like to offer our hearty thanks and appreciation to NFC for their outstanding organization of the field day and the warm hospitality they extended to all the participants.
On June 5th, the Grapa team attended the Global Grape Summit in London. This inaugural event presented us with a great opportunity to meet up with many ARRA growers from around the world.
With over 300 participants, the summit provided an excellent platform for stakeholders from around the globe to discuss the key issues facing today’s table grape industry. Topics addressed included; successful strategies in the table grape sector, consumer and retailer demands in the modern markets and evolution of the future table grape industry. The summit included presentations from key industry players.
As Grapa’s marketing director, Nomi Karniel, relates, “From my point of view, the summit was both interesting and important. The presentations on new varieties from the growers and breeders perspectives and a retailer’s presentation on ‘from the vine to the shelf’ were of particular relevance to us as table grape variety breeders.”
ARRA Sugar Drop™ (ARRA 30), fresh from the vines in Egypt, was presented by the Grape team at the summit and at the Jupiter Marketing stand at the London Fresh Produce Show the following day.
India - Full of Eastern Promise
ARRA Sugar Drop™ (ARRA 30), fresh from the vines in Egypt, was presented by the Grape team at the summit and at the Jupiter Marketing stand at the London Fresh Produce Show the following day.
Have you heard?
New, very early white, red and black varieties will be presented at the upcoming July ARRA Field Day.
Among the varieties to be presented are:
Don’t miss this opportunity to see and taste these promising new varieties.
Don’t miss out on these other newsletters:
