New grape varieties featured at SNFL Open Days in Chile
New grape varieties featured at SNFL Open Days in Chile
With over 250 participants from as far away as Spain, New Zealand, Italy and the United States, the Special New Fruit Licensing Open Days in Chile were deemed a great success.
SNFL’s sister company, AMC North America, was also in attendance to visit the trial blocks, taste the new varieties and hear the experts discuss each cultivar and variety in depth.
The first of the Open Days was held Feb. 11 in Santiago for domestic growers and exporters. The group was comprised of 200-plus technicians, growers and producers who were all eager to see how the SNFL/Sheehan Genetics varieties are performing in Chile.
Casey Ison of AMC North America, Andy Barks of MMUK, Gavin Pearce of AMC North America and Duncan Macintyre of SNFL.
The following week, SNFL hosted a two-day agenda for international visitors that included many field tours and an afternoon seminar where attendees had the opportunity to hear from grape experts on topics such as post-harvest best practices, global market trends and SNFL variety updates.
The partnership between the two Muñoz Group companies, SNFL and AMC North America, has continued to grow as the new varieties are coming to production and will be available for the first time this season to U.S. consumers through AMC North America’s sales team.
SNFL has over 20 million boxes in production worldwide on the new varieties. In Chile alone, nearly 6,000 acres are planted and AMC will be importing over 100,000 boxes this season to the US.
“It was extremely exciting to see these varieties in full production in Chile,” Casey Ison, sales and marketing manager for AMC North America, said in a press release. “We have been talking about these new, delicious varieties to our customers but this will be the first Chilean season where good volume will be available.”
The varieties include Krissy, Allison, Russell’s Pride, Magenta, Timco and Carlita on red seedless. Ivory, Timpson, Great Green and Kelly make up the green seedless varieties. Melody, a black seedless, and Black Moon, a seeded black variety, round out the lineup.
AMC North America will be selling the new varieties in its exclusive Sheehan Personal Selection stand up, high-graphic pouch bag this season.
“We are excited to offer our customers the very best grape varieties with the guarantee that Sheehan Personal Selection offers — only the best,” Ison added. “The specifications for grapes in the Sheehan Personal Selection bag assure the customer that they are getting the best quality, highest Brix and improved technical practices to deliver the most delicious grapes.”
