BACKGROUND:

Sun World International’s Research and Development Center,  located on 180 acres north of Bakersfield, California, houses the world’s largest table grape and stone fruit breeding program.  The Center develops new premium quality table grape and stone fruit varieties for fresh market. New fruit varieties are under development with objectives such as to ripen within premium harvest windows, to have higher production, to have superior juiciness and flavor, to have a cleaner brighter appearance and finish, and to be able to be produced organically or with fewer inputs. The Center, in operation since the late 1980's,  annually produces over 35,000 hybrid seedlings from  its controlled hybridization programs, and selects more than 300 potential new fruit varieties each year from those hybrid populations. Sun World's laboratory facilities include one of the world's most active embryo rescue labs, annually culturing over 75,000 seedless table grape and stone fruit embryos, and a state-of-the-art post harvest lab facility for analyzing fruit quality and storage potential.

The Center is part of Sun World's extensive Proprietary Products Development Division (PPD Division) that includes a product licensing staff based in Coachella California, and four international licensing offices located in Chile, Italy, South Africa and Australia respectively. The PPD Division coordinates patenting, licensing, and controlled production of over 130 commercial and experimental Sun World fruit varieties that are distributed to licensing partners in many of the world's key fruit producing regions. Sun World's fruit varieties are produced under license on over 4500 acres (1821 ha) in California as well as over 18,000 acres (7300 ha) internationally. Licensing relationships have been established in the United States, Spain, Italy, France, South Africa, Namibia, Chile, Israel, New Zealand and Australia. In these countries, qualified nurseries and producers are licensed to propagate and produce proprietary plum, peach, nectarine, apricot and table grape cultivars.

Sun World's PPD Division has produced more than 60 patented commercial fruit varieties and holds over 250 plant patents in one dozen countries around the world.

KEY STAFF/MANAGEMENT:

The Proprietary Products Division is directed by Senior Vice President David Marguleas with support from Staff Assistant Cathy Koob and Administrative Services Coordinator Jesse Valcazar. Research and Development staff members include a team of researchers as well as lab and field technicians.  The R&D Center is managed by Terry Bacon, who oversees breeding of peaches, plums, nectarines and apricots, Dr. Michael Striem, who  manages table grape breeding, and Sharon Rosenthal, manager of the laboratory facilities. Sun World's Cultivar Development Specialist has responsibilities for adapting new selections for commercial production. Research Associates Larry Okumoto and Gary Lott assist the Company’s breeders with crossing and general horticulture management.

Internationally, Sun World's PPD Division is supported by regional managers.  Johan Jooste is General Manager/Sun World-South Africa with responsibilities for the African Continent,  Bob Wickson is Regional Licensing Manager/Australasia with responsibilities for Australia & New Zealand, Maurizio Ventura manages all European variety development and licensing activities, and Rafael Parada oversees all Chilean licensing activities.  Sun World also employ regional technical consultants in key locations worldwide to provide technical support to licensed growers.

KEY PRODUCTS:

Extraordinary, commercial fruit introductions include a line of new premium apricots marketed under the HONEYCOT® brand; the world famous SUPERIOR SEEDLESS® brand grape; the MIDNIGHT BEAUTY® brand black seedless grape; the early-ripening AMBER CREST® peach series and a series of red-fleshed black plums marketed under the BLACK DIAMOND® brand.

FACILITIES:

The Research and Development Center is surrounded by a 180-acre experimental plot in which tens of thousands of grape and stone fruit seedlings are grown annually. The Center itself consists of a sample (tissue culture) preparation room, an (embryo rescue and extraction) transfer room, a (seedling cultivation) growth room, a post harvest laboratory,  and four (climate controlled) greenhouses.

GENERAL BREEDING PROCEDURES:

For stone fruit and table grape development, Sun World uses a highly efficient and successful breeding method called recurrent selection. This involves hybridizing different parents, each having some desired characteristic and then growing their resulting offspring. Typically not just one but several traits are needed to make a successful new variety. In the recurrent selection procedure, the best seedlings in each generation are crossed with one another to produce the next generation, each of which should produce an improvement over the previous generation. On the average, it takes more than 10 years to develop the perfect fruit.

AREAS OF FOCUS:

Table grapes: Sun World’s table grape breeders work to develop varieties of all colors which ripen in early and late season. The primary attributes the Company strives to incorporate into new varieties are: improved flavor, large berry size, firm flesh, seedlessness, uniform berry size, good color and appearance, good stem structure, optimum storage and shipping ability, improved cluster shape, pest resistance and maturity within special market niches.

Stone fruit: Company researchers and marketing specialists believe that the greatest opportunities for improving existing tree fruit are with early- and late-season varieties with improved flavor, size, color and yield. The Center is currently developing new peach, plum, apricot and nectarine varieties with enhanced flavor and unusually high amounts of natural sugar as well as extended peak season maturity. As a means of further extending fruit seasonality and producing fruit in non-traditional growing regions, it is also developing early-maturing, high-quality fruit, which is specifically adapted to low chill areas such as California’s Coachella Valley.

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