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Sun World R&D
understands the importance of shelf-life and storability of
fruit in the competitive marketplace, especially for
Southern Hemisphere licensees where fruit may spend many weeks
at sea and in cold storage before reaching the consumer.
Therefore storability is one of the primary criteria we use to
determine the economic viability of a new fruit cultivar. We
invest considerable resources in the evaluation of cold storage
potential of our cultivars and how they compare to other
available cultivars in the industry.
Sun World has contracted the services of Dr. Carlos Crisosto from Kearney Agriculture
Research Center (UC Davis) to do comparative studies on
storability of Sun World selections. With the development of
our new Post Harvest Lab at Sun
World R&D however, we have greatly expanded the number of
cultivars under evaluation. Protocols for Sun World storage trials are based on South African and Chilean protocols for packing and shipping
of fresh fruit.
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Grape packaging for export,
with SO2 pad and liner. |
With new table grape cultivars, we evaluate susceptibility
to storage disorders such as decay, shatter (loose berries), dehydration,
cracking, sensitivity to SO2, and stem browning.
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Internal breakdown on plums |
Our stone fruit cultivars are
tested for susceptibility to storage disorders such as internal
browning, gel breakdown, wooliness (mealiness), and
shriveling. Once a fruit cultivar is
determined to have good cold storage potential and is sent to
the Southern Hemisphere, our partners there often perform
additional testing before growers commit to planting it
commercially.
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