Sun World expands footprint in Southern Hemisphere

Bakersfield, Calif.-based Sun World LLC announced Dec. 14 it has added several marketers to its licensee lineup in the Southern Hemisphere.

These include two newly licensed marketers in Peru, PuraFruit and Pampa Baja, as well as Bravis in Brazil and EXSA in South Africa, according to a news release.

“We are proud to welcome these extraordinary grape producer-marketers to the Sun World community and pleased to expand our distribution channels for Sun World brands to be enjoyed by retailers and consumers worldwide,” said Garth Swinburn, vice president of licensing, in the release.

The California-based company has a network of licensed growers and marketers and maintains offices in the U.S., Europe, Australia, South America, Israel, North Africa, and South Africa. 

The additions expand Sun World’s global roster of table grape marketers, and they complement existing distribution channels to fulfill increasing market demand for Sun World leading table grape varieties, according to the release.

The new marketers have been granted rights to distribute fruit from existing and new varieties developed by Sun World, marketed under the company’s brands, such as Autumncrisp, Midnight Beauty, Sable Seedless, Adora Seedless and Scarlotta Seedless, the company said. 

Details about the marketers include: 

• PuraFruit Company was formed this year from Agricola San Jose, a longtime licensed grower of Sun World varieties in northern Peru, according to the release. In alliance with Chile’s Gesex, their new venture creates one of the biggest table grape exporters in Peru. Pura Gesex will produce an estimated 6 million cartons of grapes with a potential sales value of US $120 million, placing it among the top three table grape producers in Peru, according to the release;
• Agrícola Pampa Baja, owned by the Paredes family, was founded in 1998 as an integrated farming, packing and exporting company which now farms more than 5,900 acres of land in the north and south of Peru, according to the release; 
• Bravis Comercial Exportadora was established in 2008 in the São Francisco Valley Region of Brazil as a subsidiary of the table grape producer Labrunier, which was purchased at the end of 2019 by the Spanish group El Ciruelo, led by José Velasco, the release said. 
• EXSA was established as an independent South African table grape exporter in 1997, following deregulation of the country’s fruit industry, according to the release.