Terry, a 20-year veteran of stone fruit breeding, is in his fourth season at Sun World R&D, where he develops new peach, nectarine, plum and apricot varieties. Bacon feels that southern California is the ideal location for variety development. “You can do it all here, and better than anywhere in the world. There’s no better place to test a low chill variety than in the Coachella Valley, and our early-season apricots and plums have been more consistent in early districts of the San Joaquin Valley because that's where they were selected and tested.”  In early-season districts throughout the world, warm winter temperatures often cause problems for stone fruit growers, including prominent tips on peaches, doubled-fruit, excessive thrips damage on nectarines, and fruit-set problems on plums and apricots. The 2003 season, with its unusually warm winter and uneven temperatures during bloom is a good example.  "Apricot varieties in some areas of  the southern San Joaquin Valley aborted much of their crop this spring," said Bacon, "but the Sun World HONEYCOT^® Series varieties set well."  Bacon added, “We are very excited about our early varieties, but we are developing some of the best late-season varieties in the world as well”.  

Bacon is a native of Texas, where he worked as a breeder for 16 years with the Texas A&M University Stone Fruit Breeding Program, and was a fruit grower himself.  While at A&M, Terry helped to establish variety-testing sites throughout the state, and worked closely with breeders in California. He also has special interests in computer database and web site development. Terry and his wife Jamie raised two sons in Texas and the family owned and operated a local peach orchard. “The boys were on tractors from the age of 12,” said Bacon, “ and the university town environment was a great place to raise a family. We’ll always cherish those years but California is the place to be for fruit breeding!” Terry and Jamie’s older son, Lee is graduating from Texas A&M this year and their younger son, Evan is now a high school Junior in Bakersfield.

Mark your calendar; Sun World is hosting two international expositions for fruit growers and marketers.

Stone Fruit Expo, June 4-5

Table Grape Expo, July 16-18

The objective of the meetings will be to provide an opportunity for growers throughout the world to get together and share experiences and knowledge, as well as to visit with fruit specialists and Sun World fruit breeders. Sun World fruit breeders, Terry Bacon and Michael Striem will present information about new varieties in the pipeline. Other Sun World presenters include David Marguleas, Senior Vice President of Licensing and Corporate Development, Bob Wickson, of Sun World Australasia, and Johan Jooste, of Sun World South Africa. The meetings will also feature fruit specialists to guide panel discussions about fruit variety issues.

Agendas for the Expos will be available in future newsletters and those interested in attending can contact Heather McMahan for more information.

At a recent Eurofruit Congress, David Marguleas, Sun World Sr. Vice President of Licensing and Corporate Development, outlined the company’s objectives in Europe and beyond. During the Congress, representatives of Royal Ahold invited Sun World to meet with Ahold buyers at their March meetings at corporate headquarters in Zaandam, Holland.  Ahold is a global food retailer with over 9000 supermarkets, hypermarkets and convenience stores world-wide and sells Sun World varieties from every country in which they are produced.

Sun World Consultant, Mark Swanwick (pictured) spoke at the March gathering of buyers and outlined Sun World’s growing and sales operations. However, most of the interest centered on Sun World’s varietal development programs, new varieties in the pipeline, and the sourcing of authorized production.

Some positive conclusions were reached, including the possibility of partnering to give high in-store prominence to Sun World’s MIDNIGHT BEAUTY^® black seedless table grape as it becomes available.