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Table
Grape Expo 2003 draws industry
people from around the world |
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on image for full size (203kb)
More than 80 people from
around the world
attended Sun World’s 2003 Table
Grape Expo on July 16-18 in
Bakersfield, CA. The Expo,
chaired by Sun World’s David
Marguleas, was attended by a
diverse group of grape growers
and marketers from Australia,
Chile, South Africa, Brazil,
Argentina, Morocco, Italy,
Spain, Israel, Egypt and the
U.S. “This first Sun
World Grape Expo afforded us
 the
opportunity to showcase some of
our more promising new seedless
grape varieties, give our
licensees a glimpse of what our
research staff is working on for
the future, and share our vision
for a successful
managed-planting,
channeled-marketing approach to
variety development,” said
Marguleas.
Most of those attending
were Sun World licensees
there to learn more about Sun
World’s proprietary table grape
varieties and about strategies
for licensed managed plantings
of those varieties. The Expo
was much more than a show about
Sun World however, as attendees
were treated to presentations by
world-class grape experts and to
insightful panel discussions.
On field tours, attendees
interacted with
 Sun World
production staff and consultants
while inspecting plantings of
Sun World’s established
varieties including Sugraone and
Sugrathirteen as well as
plantings of new varieties such
as Sugrasixteen and
Sugraeighteen. During
group dinners held each evening,
attendees were able to relax and
to share experiences with their
counterparts in the industry.
Tim Shaheen, Sun World
President and CEO,
delivered the formal
introduction to the meetings
with a brief overview of the
Company’s operations and its
commitment to the research and
development program and
licensing efforts. Marguleas
followed up with talks about Sun
World’s licensing strategies and
the value of managed plantings.
Sun
World Grape Breeder, Dr. Michael
Striem spoke about
cultivar development at Sun
World R&D and gave
 insight into
where the program is and where
it is going. In other
presentations Striem gave
detailed descriptions of Sun
World’s grape cultivars and
offered a display and tasting of
early cultivars. Other Sun
World presenters included Sharon
Rosenthal, Lab Manager, who
explained the embryo rescue and
tissue culture process, and
Terry Bacon, Stone Fr uit
Breeder, who delivered a brief
overview of Sun World’s stone
fruit cultivars. Guy McGhie,
Cultivar Development Specialist,
described the work of commercial
testing and cultivar
development, including field
experiments he performs to
determine best cultural
practices for maximizing
production and quality.
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The meetings also
featured world-class
researchers from
the table grape arena.
Dr. Carlos Crisosto, Post
Harvest Physiologist at
U.C. Davis gave a talk
about advances in table
grape post harvest
research and evaluations.
Crisosto also discussed
storage trials he has
performed on Sun World
grape cultivars. Dr. Andy
Walker, Associate
Professor at U.C. Davis,
spoke about his work in
grape rootstock breeding
and offered insight into
new rootstocks on the
horizon for the industry.
Dr.
Nick DoKoozlian, Professor
of Viticulture at
U.C. Davis, moderated a
panel discussion about
international grape
prod uction trends and
opportunities for new
cultivars in the industry.
Panel members, selected in
advance from all major
grape growing regions
worldwide, were given the
task of predicting trends
in grape production and
marketing over the next 15
years. International
Licensing Manager Andrew Mansour, who helped to
coordinate the Expo along
with Marketing Assistant
Heather McMahan, planned
the panel discussion.
“The panelists offered
diverse and informed
perspectives that
stimulated much discussion
amongst the attendees
about the future of the
grape industry,” said
Mansour.
On the marketing end,
Mike Aiton, Senior Vice
President of Sales and
Marketing, outlined the
state of the
ever-consolidating U.S.
supermarket industry.
Aiton described the
success Sun World has had
marketing branded
proprietary products such
as SUPERIOR SEEDLESS®
and MIDNIGHT BEAUTY®
brand table grapes and the
BLACK DIAMOND®
brand plum line.
Aiton also mentioned
recent marketing studies,
including a consumer study
on grapes in clamshell
packaging, noting that,
”not only did product in
clamshell packaging have a
longer shelf life, but
stores selling grapes in
clam shell sold 40% more
in dollar volume than
stores that only carried
grapes in bags”.
 Sun
World technical
consultants, Claus
Orth from South Africa,
and Hovav Wexler from
Israel, led an interactive
discussion on best
practices for the
production of Sun World
cultivars. The two
international Sugraone
experts were also
available for questions on
the field tours, along
with Senior Vice President
of Operations Kevin Andrew
and his farm managers. Guy
McGhie did an outstanding
job of coordinating the
tours so that attendees
were divided into small
groups, able to interact
closely with the
production experts.
 The
Expo concluded with a
barbecue at Sun
World R&D grounds and that
evening several of the
attendees and Sun World
people went out for a
night of dinner and live
country-western music at
Bakersfield’s world famous
Crystal Palace.
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Sun
World Nursery
Licensees |
Sun
World cultivars are grown
under license on over
15,000 acres on 5
continents, and growers
receive high-quality
virus-indexed plant
material only from
licensed nursery
companies.
Sun
World Licensing
Currently
Licensed Nurseries:
Italy
-- Vitroplant for Sugraone
grapevines
Morocco
-- Vitroplant of Italy, VG
Nurseries of South Africa
for Sugraone grapevines
South
Africa -- SAPO (South
African Plant Improvement
Organization) for grapes
and stonefruit
Australia
-- ANFIC (Australian
Nurserymen's Fruit
Improvement Co.) for
grapes and stonefruit
New
Zealand -- New Zealand
Fruit Tree Co. for
stonefruit
Chile
-- CV Chile for stonefruit;
Agricola Brown for
grapevines
France
-- Star Fruits for
stonefruit and grapes
United
States -- Sierra Gold
Nurseries for stonefruit
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