Sweet Celebration is a new proprietary red seedless table grape variety from International Fruit Genetics that is being offered this year by Pandol Bros. Inc. in Delano, CA.

While the variety is not exclusive to Pandol, “we have a lot of it, where no one else really has very much of it yet,” said John Pandol, a director of the corporation.

Pandol Bros. made “a big splash” with Sweet Celebration at Asia Fruit Logistica last year, Mr. Pandol said. “We introduced it in a big way in Asia and around the Pacific” and to “certain U.S. retailers.”

With more in production this year, “we are going to spread it around a little bit more,” he said. “This will be our first push with sweet celebration” in the U.S. market. The variety will be in the stores by Labor Day.

The variety has “a very low acid finish in the taste,” he said. “It tends to get a large berry size and at least in our area it tends to be a bright pink,” rather than the burgundy color of some red grape varieties. “The sweet taste with no tannic after finish is really an interesting taste characteristic,” he said.

Being still a new variety, there is much yet to learn about Sweet Celebration. “We are still playing with it,” Mr. Pandol said.

However, the harvest is expected to begin late August, “and we are telling people to plan to have it in the store for the Labor Day ad and for the five weekends in September.”

The increase in Sweet Celebration for Pandol Bros. this season comes partly from “an additional grower that has them that we will be marketing for,” according to Louis Pandol, and officer at Pandol Bros.

Sweet Celebration is not the only variety that will be up in volume for Pandol Bros. this year, he said July 11. “We have more Luisco this year. We have three growers with those, with new production.”

Luisco is a late green seedless variety “very similar to Autumn King” with similar size and timing, he said.

As with the Autumn King, he expects it will be marketed “all here in the United States. I don’t foresee that it is going to be an export variety — not that it can’t be.”

Pandol Bros. also has Autumn King but does not expect an increase in those this year. “We have more coming next year,” he said.

The company expects a larger crop of the Autumn Royal late season black seedless variety than last year, he said.

Among the other varieties offered by Pandol Bros. are Thomson seedless Flame seedless, Summer Royal black seedless, Unknown or Chilean black seedless, Princess green seedless, Red Globe, Crimson seedless, Ruby seedless, and Scarlet Royal and Timco, both newer red seedless varieties.