California grape breeder Giumarra Vineyards Corporation is opening up worldwide licensing of its ARRA grape varieties.
The Giumarra family, based in the San Joaquin valley, is well known for its GrapeKing brand and is one of the largest grape growers in the area. It has now adopted a new approach to grant access to the fruits of its 15-year-old variety breeding scheme.
The programme has developed early, mid- and late-season varieties of red, white and black seedless grapes, all with strict selection criteria, that it expects to rival staple varieties such as Flame, Thompson and Crimson.
The family has struck a deal with breeder Shachar Karniel and his Grapa Company distributor business to license growers worldwide to produce the fruit for marketing to the destination of their choice.
In the UK, Mack Multiples, part of the Fresca Group, is the preferred partner of Giumarra Vineyards Corporation, as an advisory and marketing link to join growers with retailers. Mack has helped advise on the UK market and its growers around the world are among the first to plant the ARRA varieties.
A Mack spokeswoman said: “Unlike other breeding programmes, growers wishing to plant these new varieties will not find themselves tied into a resulting marketing agreement, merely a standard licensing agreement with the Grapa Company as the worldwide distributor and master licensee of the Giumarra (ARRA) varieties.”
Mack took delivery this week of the first commercially available white grape volumes of ARRA15 grown in California from the Giumarra family programme.
Dan Crooks, commercial director of Mack Grapes, said: “We have had a really interesting time working with Shachar over the last five years, bringing our UK market insights and challenges to the Giumarra family programme. Our grower partners around the world have benefited from being in prime position, not just to plant the newly available varieties, but to know that they are planting quality grapes that fulfil a real market need. This [is a] strategic investment from an industry specialist and we are very proud of our ongoing association with the Giumarra family.”
