Fruit Royale will see big increases in Scarlet Royal and Autumn King varieties
Fruit Royale will see big increases in Scarlet Royal and Autumn King varieties
Fruit Royale Inc. in Delano, CA, has increases in several grape varieties for the latter part of the season, according to Louie Galvan, a partner in the company. “Our biggest increases are going to be in Scarlet Royal and Autumn King,” he said July 7.
Autumn King, a late season green seedless variety that for Fruit Royale follows the mid-season Princess variety, has seen a great deal of growth industry-wide in the last year or so. “It has really done well for us,” Galvan said. “It gives us great size. The customers are liking what they see and taste.”
The Scarlet Royal, a mid-season red seedless variety that for Fruit Royale follows Flame and precedes Crimson, has been similarly well received. It also has “great size,” and it achieves “great color with a minimal amount of struggle, which is a plus compared to a crimson that is a constant struggle to try to get full color on.”
Crimson is, otherwise, “an awesome grape,” he said. But the struggle to get color “comes associated with costs, so it makes the production of that grape much more expensive.”
Fruit Royal has “scaled back a little bit” on its production of Red Globes, Galvan said.
In general, the July and August varieties haven’t changed much for the company, he said. Rather, “the emphasis seems to be on the storage deal” and on varieties “that take us from September and October harvest and into November and December shipping.” That “seems to be where the investments are … and that makes sense,” he said. That is the period when “prices start taking a little bit of a jump” and growers “are focusing on those varieties that do return a little bit better money.”
