The harvest of ARRA Sugar Drop™ in Sicily, Italy, has just started and we are excited to give you a sneak peek of the season. Moreover we are glad to report on the latest Field Day held in Egypt as well as the success of the very early ARRA selections in Israel.
This past week in Sicily, Southern Italy, OP Valleverde started the harvest of their early ARRA Sugar Drop at Azienda Agricola Criscione Salvatore.
Mr. Salvatore Novello, sales manager at OP Valleverde, says: “This year, in the Mazzarrone area, located in the province of Catania, our focus was on obtaining a superb quality ARRA Sugar Drop”.
Mr. Novello adds: “The combination of the climatic factors of the spring that has just ended with the cultivation under greenhouse, made it possible for us to advance the harvest of ARRA Sugar Drop by more than one month compared to the traditional field’s coverings”.
AVI, the ARRA territorial representative in Europe, reports that ARRA Sugar Drop, being an early variety, lends itself well to this growing practice, as exemplified by the results obtained in these last two years of production.
The crop appears balanced with a beautiful and elongated berry shape, a distinct sweet flavor and outstanding crunchiness. These striking results were obtained thanks to the skill mastered by the producer, the technical advice provided, as well as OP Valleverde closely following the production guidelines developed by AVI and Grapa.
The market is currently expressing an ever-growing interest in the ARRA seedless varieties, especially at this time of the year, when import production ends and Italian production begins, supplying fresh grapes to the European market.
Last week the Egyptian growers were invited to attend an ARRA Field day at the Agrostar ARRA evaluation block. During the tour, the participants had the opportunity to experience the very early and early white, red and black ARRA varieties that are currently in an advanced stage of evaluation.
Egypt is the earliest country to produce grapes in the Northern Hemispheres and the producers are always in search of varieties that can be harvested as early as possible. This is something that the ARRA Breeding programme can indeed accommodate.
For those who missed the Field Day, our ARRA representative in Egypt, Eng. Ali Shahata, would like to share with our readers the videos below.
LET THE HARVEST BEGIN
ARRA Passion Fire™ and ARRA Sugar Drop™
Following the pictures that we shared in our previous newsletter of the Grapa team’s visit to Egypt, we are now excited to share the updated shots of ARRA Passion Fire and ARRA Sugar Drop. These photos below were taken on Thursday, one day before the start of harvest.
Many thanks to Mrs. Esraa and Ahmed Harraz for hosting the event at Agrostar farm, as well as Eng. Fayez Dowidar and Eng. Ali Shahata, the ARRA representatives in Egypt for the coordination of the event.
The Israeli market loves ARRA Sugar Drop due to its great eating quality and sweetness. Salmor Grapes, located in the Jordan Valley, almost finished the harvest, obtaining excellent results.
Listen to Uzi Yaron, Grapa R&D Director, talking about ARRA Sugar Drop just one day before harvest in the Jordan Valley.
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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.