Now that the very early ARRA varieties from the Northern Hemisphere have reached the supermarket shelves, we are glad to unveil the continuation of the 2021 season with the white mid-season ARRA 15 (ARRA Sweeties™) in Morocco. We then invite you to catch up on the most recent ARRA field days in Italy and Israel.

In our previous newsletter, we featured the opening of the harvest season with the early red ARRA 29 (ARRA Passion Fire™) and the early whites ARRA 30 (ARRA Sugar Drop™) and Early Sweet™, in both, Egypt and Morocco. We are glad to report good feedback received by the European market, where the fruit was well accepted by leading supermarket chains especially in the United Kingdom, where the demand for fresh grapes is high, especially since the closing of the season from the southern hemisphere.

ARRA Passion Fire™ exported by Societe Agricole Guiro, Morocco and mixed punnets of ARRA Sugar Drop™ and ARRA Passion Fire were exported by Agrostar, Egypt.

ARRA Passion Fire exported by Les Vergers du Soleil and EHM, Morocco

Elite Harvest Maroc (EHM)

ARRA Sweeties™

This season’s harvest of the early ARRA varieties and Early Sweet has now come to an end in Morocco, leaving the stage for the mid-season varieties. ARRA Passion Fire (ARRA 29), the early red variety, produced by EHM was very well accepted by the market as the below pictures speak for themselves.
ARRA Passion Fire (ARRA 29) arrival in Europe

EHM began their harvest, in Marrakech, for ARRA 15 (ARRA Sweeties) in the end of June. The harvest will continue up until July 14th according to Khalifa Smari, Production and Farm Manager at EHM. Khalifa reports: “This is a very special year for us. We achieved great quality with all the ARRA varieties, leaving our clients very satisfied. We shipped the fruit to Germany, France and UK to leading supermarkets”.

ARRA Sweeties™ (ARRA 15) on its way to Europe
ARRA 15 has been planted worldwide due to its adaptability to different climates and best profitability among the existing white varieties. It is well known for its exceptional eating quality reaching its best when the sugar and acid are balanced. ARRA 15 at 18-19 Brix and 0.8%-0.7% acid truly reaches its best eating quality. Along with great shipping performance and long shelf life, ARRA 15 is very fertile and has an incomparable rain resistance.
The EHM team is proud of this year's results. Left to right: Zouhair Mazouzi, Operations Manager, Khalifa Smari Farm Manager, Saïd Zakaria Irrigation Technician, Mohamed Ryahy worker Suprvisor, Boutaina Abdeljlil, Quality Cordinator
ARRA Sweeties imported to France by Albafruit
We are glad to see that our focus in developing early selections is ultimately positioning the ARRA varieties in a large number of supermarket programs due to the market needs, during the very early season.

ARRA Field Day

Sicily Italy

AVI, our exclusive territorial representative for the ARRA™ varieties and for Early Sweet™ in Europe and the ARRA sub-licensee Barbera International organized an ARRA Open Field Day in Sicily, southern Italy. This Italian Island has the advantage of an early microclimate, which gives the opportunity to harvest the ARRA varieties produced here before those produced in mainland Italy, thus opening the European season of early ARRA varieties in Sicily.

The over 100 participants had the chance to see and taste the excellent quality of ARRA Sugar Drop™ (ARRA 30). During the day, the participants were accompanied by Agronomists Maurizio Simone and Marco Tempesta from AVI, along with Alessandro Barbera, CEO of Barbera International and the agronomist of the company, Mario Martello.

The day started with a visit to the field of ARRA 30 of Azienda Agricola Giuseppe di Stefano producer of Barbera International while the second visit was in the field of Terre Assolate farm, owned by Salvatore Novello. After the tour in the vineyards, all the participants spent the afternoon attending a seminar that took place in Villa Orchidea, Comiso (Ragusa).

ARRA 30. Pictures credit: Gaetano Piccione, FreshPlaza

The whole ARRA varieties series have been available in Italy for years and continue to attract the attention of markets but the focus during this field day has been ARRA 30, a variety that proved to be extremely successful in Italy.

ARRA 30 (ARRA Sugar Drop) is an early white seedless grape with first-rate eating quality. The attractive elongated berries have a well-balanced sweetness housed beneath crisp and crunchy skin. Notable for its light-creamy coloration this variety holds up well on the vine. Needless to say, ARRA 30 is particularly loved by the European market and of course, it is the shining ARRA star in Italy.

Pictures credit: Gaetano Piccione, FreshPlaza

During the seminar, Maurizio and Marco presented the vision behind the ARRA breeding program and focused on the most important aspects of irrigation as well as the importance of selecting and shortening the bunches at approx. 15/18 cm in order to obtain the best out of this variety. As emphasized by Carlo Lingua, AVI CEO, the main focus is not about quantity but about achieving the highest quality. Carlo was interviewed over the phone by Fresh Plaza and you can read the full article here.

From left: Alessandro Barbera owner of Barbera Internationa, Giuseppe di Stefano, producer, Marco Tempesta, Mario Martello, Barbera's Agronomist and Maurizio Simone. Pictures credit: Gaetano Piccione, FreshPlaza
A special thanks to the Barbera International team who kindly hosted the event as well as all the AVI team for their great devotion and support towards the ARRA program.

On July 1st, Grapa Varieties held an ARRA field day in Moshav Lachish, southern Israel focusing on three varieties: ARRA Passion Fire (ARRA 29), ARRA Sugar Drop, (ARRA 30), ARRA Honey Pop™ (ARRA 33). Many growers from all over Israel participated in the ARRA field day that provided a great opportunity to see and taste the varieties.

Uzi Yaron, Grapa R&D Director, showcasing the varieties
Left: ARRA 33 (ARRA Honey Pop™). Right: ARRA 29 (ARRA Passion Fire™)

The producers in Israel are satisfied by the results obtained and they particularly appreciate the early selections that allow the supply of fresh grapes in the market.

Left: Rafi and Shachar Karniel. Right: the Grapa team harvesting ARRA 33 (ARRA HoneyPop™)

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