WINTER HAVEN, Fla. – This week SunnyRidge Farm, based in the United States, and Viverosur of Chile signed an agreement designed to further the raspberry industry in Mexico. Under the agreement, SunnyRidge Farm will have license to produce the new Amira® raspberry variety in the country of Mexico.
The Amira® variety, developed by Berry Plant of Italy, was introduced last year to the European markets receiving superior ratings for taste, quality and size from several leading retailers. SunnyRidge has selected a few key growers, from its family of growers in Mexico, to partner with in the production of this new variety with the goal of maximizing its raspberry offerings to its retail customers in the coming years.
“For the last several years, SunnyRidge Farm has continued to focus on increasing its investment in the rapidly growing raspberry industry in Mexico. This agreement with Viverosur to produce the Amira® variety, along with our existing proprietary blueberry variety licenses, allows us to complete our genetic offering of high quality berries from Mexico. We are very excited and look forward to a very successful upcoming Mexican berry season,” stated Keith Mixon, President and CEO of SunnyRidge Farm.
“We are excited to begin this new venture with SunnyRidge Farm. The Amira® variety has proven very successful in other regions with similar weather patterns as Mexico. We anticipate great success with this new variety in Mexico and look forward to our continued partnership with SunnyRidge Farm in the future,” affirmed Alejandro Navarro, Director of Viverosur.
About SunnyRidge Farm
SunnyRidge Farm, Inc., family owned and operated since 1993, is a grower, packer, shipper and marketer of both organic and conventional blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and strawberries, delivering quality product to meet our customer’s unique needs. SunnyRidge’s core values of reliability, flexibility and innovation drive the company from all aspects of the business. Based in Winter Haven, Florida, the company represents the finest growers from regions throughout North, Central and South America providing for a reliable year-round berry supply. All farms are held to the highest quality standards and are certified by the strictest GAP certification programs available. The company focuses on delivering excellent service to its customers through its own in-house logistics department and trucks providing delivery to customers throughout the United States.
About Viverosur
Viverosur is a family business founded 21 years ago in Curico, Chile. Since the beginning, they have focused on developing propagation technologies and intellectual property in fruit varieties. Within the technological aspects, they have in vitro laboratories in Curico, Chile and California, USA, where they are the largest producers of rootstocks of cherries Gisela ® in vitro in the world. Within intellectual property, they have focused on the exclusive use of varieties. Some examples of their exclusive varieties of raspberry include Amira ®; kiwis include Summerkiwi ®, Enzagold ® and Enzar ®; in pomegranates they are developing 1.000 ha of Israel varieties in Chile and are initiating similar projects with Apples SweeTango® Evelyn® in Chile. In blueberries they will begin an evolution of the new genetic improvement program of Plant & Food Research of NZ, which will work with the company Enza ® in Latin America and Mexico.
Source: SunnyRidge Farm
