The 2016 season will see the second commercial volumes of the Tawny red seedless grape from South Africa, which will be marketed by Core Fruit and other authorised distributors.
"We expect volumes of in excess of 500,000 cartons," explains Nico van Staden from Core Fruit. "This is of course, weather permitting. We will send the Tawny red seedless grape to all our markets, Europe, the UK, Far and Middle East and Canada. It is a strong variety with good shelf-life and berry size, so we want to expose it to all the markets."
The variety is an early red seedless grape and will harvest together with Flame, in all production areas, starting in Limpopo this year.
"Parts of South Africa are still experiencing drought conditions so water there will have to be well managed," according to Nico. "It is now the rainy season and some areas will have enough water. There may be issues, but I am not overly worried."
The breeder, Lombardi Genetics, is in the process of rolling this variety out in other countries, and in the coming years, volumes will be grown in other countries, like Spain, California and Chile.
"Last year Tawny grape volumes were limited and there was not enough go around, but the grape was very well accepted by all our customers and this year there will be better supply," said Nico.
The variety is planted throughout South Africa, Limpopo is the earliest region, then the Northern Cape and lastly the Western Cape. Core Fruit should be able to supply the Tawny grape throughout the season.
