Bakersfield, Calif. – In an effort to grow its stonefruit breeding and licensing business, Sun World International, LLC has named six additional companies as stonefruit licensees, creating greater availability and distribution reach for the California company’s proprietary peach, plum, nectarine and apricot varieties, Executive Vice President David Marguleas announced here recently. Sun World operates a robust stonefruit variety development and licensing program in addition to its table grape breeding, growing and marketing operations. The newly appointed stonefruit licensees include two Australian marketers, three Israeli packer-marketers and a Chilean distributor.
In addition to distributing stonefruit from new varieties developed by Sun World, the six companies have been awarded licenses to use Sun World’s brands, including BLACK DIAMOND®, HONEYCOT®, SUPER STAR® and BLACK GIANT® in the marketplace, Marguleas said.
The new licensees consist of six marketing companies:
• Servicios Chilfresh Ltda., based in Chile’s Region VII in Curico, is owned and managed by Andre Luteijn. It was founded in 1993 as a leading fresh fruit exporter and today specializes in Asian markets.
• W.A. Farm Direct, a Western Australian horticultural marketing company based in Perth, is owned and managed by John Mercer, his son Bradley Mercer and daughter Jenny Mercer, and who, along with Brett Heather, bring diverse backgrounds in trading, retail services and variety development to their solid group of Australian stonefruit growers.
• Mercer Mooney, based in Perth, Western Australia, and in business for 100 years, is headed by General Manager Paul Neale and has around 800 growers supplying a diverse range of fruit and vegetable lines including stonefruit.
• Ayelet Hashahar, a Kibbutz (collective community) in the Hula Valley in northern Israel, was established in 1915 and grows, packs and ships apples, pears, avocado, pomegranate, almonds and stonefruit. Its manager is Eyal Carmi.
• Rafkor, located in Rosh Pina in northern Israel, has been in business for 43 years and is managed by Gruner Benbenisti. It is privately owned by its grower members and packs and markets stonefruit, pears, citrus, pomegranates and kiwifruit.
• Rani and Shai Barness, a third generation family grower-packer-marketer located at Moshav Bitzaron in south-central Israel that handles low-chill stonefruit as well as pomegranates, avocado and persimmons.
“These leading stonefruit companies, along with their producers, will ensure that supermarkets and consumers have even better access to our branded lines of proprietary fresh apricots, plums, peaches and nectarines,” Marguleas said, adding that the six new appointees join 19 existing Sun World stonefruit licensees operating in most major fruit growing regions of the world.
Sun World's fruit licensing program involves more than 1,500 producers and marketing companies in most of the world's major fruit-?growing regions.
In addition to creating new and better tasting peach, plum, nectarine and apricot varieties, Sun World’s new variety development program focuses on a full range of seedless grapes with extraordinary characteristics such as enhanced flavor, distinctive taste, larger berries and clusters, earlier and later ripening times and availability, and increased productivity.
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Sun World, a longstanding U.S.-?based producer and marketer of fresh fruit, operates one of the world's largest table grape and stonefruit breeding programs. Since its inception in the mid-?1970s, the Company's Variety Development Center has released countless varieties with improved flavor, size, color, shelf-?life and extended seasonality. In addition to production on its own California properties, Sun World and/or its licensees grow these proprietary varieties in Australia, New Zealand, North America, Europe, South America, Israel and South Africa.
Sun World is a leading innovator in the research, production, distribution and promotion of fresh produce. The company maintains integrated agricultural operations throughout central and southeastern California. More information about Sun World is available at www.Sun-World.com.
Source: Sun World
