The Grapa team is back on the road and this week we bring you updates from Egypt, where times are extremely busy with the start of this harvest season.
The Grapa Team, guided by Eng. Ali Shahata, ARRA Coordinator in Egypt, just returned home from a very fruitful visit to the ARRA producers. Eng. Ali Shahata reports: “Last week, the harvest season of ARRA varieties began in Egypt, and it was noted that the quality of the crop and the load are better than last season, despite the climatic changes this year”.
Today the Egyptian growers have reached a high level of experience in the production of ARRA Varieties and we are very pleased to see the growers reaping the fruit of their hard work.

Technogreen

Technogreen is the largest Egyptian ARRA producer and their plantation includes ARRA white, red and black varieties. The farm’s technical team holds a high level of knowledge and experience which is reflected in their end product that truly speaks for itself.

ARRA Passion Fire™ (ARRA 29)

ARRA 29 (ARRA Passion Fire™) is showing great results this season at Technogreen Farm. Under the guidance of Eng. Fayez Dowidar, Technical Manager and Mostafa Hassan, Farm Manager, the crop has reached optimal berry size, crunchiness, sweetness, color and uniformity. The key to reaching such a level of quality and achieving a great crop has been to shorten the bunches. This method allowed for the development of berry crunchiness, sweetness and color by means of optimally managing the load as well as bunch size.
Magdy Mansour, Chairman of Technogreen, is particularly proud of the results obtained this season. Due to the high demand for export to South Africa, Technogreen has decided to keep part of the crop, on the vine, for later harvest. At this stage, the technical team is waiting for the sugar ring to develop as a sign before beginning to harvest. The Egyptian growers have refined the growing methods to produce high-quality ARRA Passion Fire™ grapes and it will certainly be much appreciated by the market.

ARRA 29 grown to perfection. In the center, Magdy Mansour

ARRA Sugar Drop™ (ARRA 30)

ARRA 30 (ARRA Sugar Drop™) is demonstrating a successful season as well. Technogreen has reached a high yield with excellent quality, proving the variety’s suitability to the Egyptian climate and environment. ARRA 30 is early, it is very fertile, crunchy, has excellent eating quality and holds up well on the vine. The high crop achieved this year was due to the extended berry weight and bunches count.

The ultimate bunch size and crop control. From left to right: Shachar Karniel, Magdy Mansour, Nomi Karniel and Mostafa Hassan

ARRA Honey Pop™ (ARRA 33)

ARRA 33 (ARRA Honey Pop™) is currently in the final stages of treatment evaluation by Techogreen, where the team is fine-tuning the Grapa growing guidelines’ adaptability to the local environment. The efforts are indeed paying off, as the berries are large, crunchy and sweet. There is a substantial interest in this winning ARRA selection in Egypt. ARRA Honey Pop™ will definitely be a great advantage to the producers, thanks to its earliness, crunchiness and excellent shelf life, but, most of all, the minimum labor required per acre due to the perfect berry set with no shot berries.

Impressive ARRA 33 (ARRA Honey Pop™) at Technogreen farm

ARRA 24

ARRA 24, grown uniquely in Egypt, has proven to be a successful early black variety to export. With immense, knowledge and expertise, the Technogreen team has managed to achieve an excellent crop with a striking color. The bunches look beautiful, and although the yield, is not maximized, Technogreen still foresees very good returns. The Egyptian producers of ARRA 24 are pleased with this variety as it allows them to enter the market with an early black variety when there is a demand, but low availability.
Eng. Mohamed Kamal, Farm manager at Nimos, proud of the ARRA 24 results

FATA

The quality of FATA’s ARRA production has exceeded all expectations this year and ARRA 15 (ARRA Sweeties™) and ARRA 29 (ARRA Passion Fire™) are once again showing a good performance this season. Mr. Hamdy Fayed, FATA’s owner, is happy with the results obtained. During the visit to the farm, the Grapa team was impressed with the high level of organization as well as the FATA’s team’s ability to adapt the right growing practices for the ARRA Varieties.

ARRA 15 (ARRA Sweeties™)

FATA farm’s technical team developed a growing protocol for ARRA 15 (ARRA Sweeties) that is suitable for their area ensuring the fruit will ripen at the precise time, suited for export. ARRA 15 (ARRA Sweeties) and ARRA 29 (ARRA Passion Fire) both exemplify truly stunning bunches, berry size, uniformity and shape.

Hamdy Fayed & Shachar Karniel in a ARRA 15 block

ARRA 29 (ARRA Passion Fire™)

The ARRA 29 at FATA farm is slightly later compared to the other farms that the Grapa’s team visited. This is mainly due to its northern location. During the visit, the sugar ring was carefully evaluated as it is a very important factor in order to determine the right day to begin the harvest. The crop is well managed with optimal bunches size, bunch count and leafing control.

ARRA 29 in FATA's farm.

FATA Test Block

The Grapa’s team visit continued to FATA’s test block where the site is run with precise and attentive care. The new and early selections attracted the attention of the team, especially ARRA 33 which proved itself in all 3 test blocks that were visited, making it the next variety to be planted on a commercial scale in the near future.
The early ARRA red selections at FATA’s test block has also attracted everyone’s attention due to their earliness, yield as well as firmness. The FATA team is truly committed to the evaluation of this new generation of ARRA Varieties and this is apparent in the results.

AGROSTAR

To date, Mokhles Harraz, Owner of Agrostar, holds an exceptionally high level of knowledge and expertise in the production of ARRA Varieties. Agrostar’s great reputation is built on years of hard work and remarkable produce. Season after season the ARRA Varieties produced by Agrostar are synonymous with great and stable quality.
Shachar Karniel and Mokhles Harraz

ARRA Passion Fire™ (ARRA 29)

This season Agrostar’s ARRA 29 (ARRA Passion Fire™) production is absolutely stunning. Agrostar truly reached an exemplary crop: color, size and grape quality are superb.
ARRA 29 (ARRA Passion Fire™)

Agrostar ARRA test block

In addition to the already commercial varieties, Agrostar is currently testing, under the excellent management of Esraa Harraz, some of the new generations of ARRA Varieties and what we have seen so far looks very promising. Between the new varieties under evaluation, and along with the soon-to-be commercial, ARRA Honey Pop™ (ARRA 33) we have high expectations for ARRA 34 as well as for a new early red and a new early black selections that have really impressed us all.

ARRA 33 (ARRA Honey Pop™)

The uniqueness of ARRA 33 (ARRA Honey Pop™) is the ripening time which is a few days after Early Sweet and a week before ARRA 30 allowing the continuous presence on the shelf of early green varieties. Free of shot berries, it is characterized by outstanding eating quality with extreme crunchiness and a hint of Muscat flavor.

ARRA 33 (ARRA Honey Pop™)

ARRA 34

ARRA 34 has attracted much interest among growers due to its unique, berry shape and size, fresh eating quality, shiny light green color, fertility and ease of growing. It ripens between ARRA 30 and ARRA 15, promising the continuous supply of elongated berry-shaped white ARRA varieties for at least 2 months.

ARRA 34

COMING SOON

This very early black variety is truly promising as it develops a beautiful full black color naturally, it reaches a high sugar level and it is easy to grow.
This new red ARRA selection, currently under evaluation, is early and has a truly unique quality of self coloring to this beautiful full red.
The Grapa team would like to thank Eng. Ali Shahata for organizing the successful trip and for his continuous commitment to the ARRA Program as well as all the Egyptian producers for the warm hospitality during the visits to the farms. We wish you all a fruitful ARRA season!

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