International Fruit Genetics

Last updated
International Fruit Genetics
TypePrivate
Industry Fruit breeding
Founded2001;22 years ago (2001) [1]
Founders
  • David Cain
  • Jack Pandol
  • Glen Stoller
  • Terrie Stoller
  • Craig Stoller
Headquarters,
United States
Key people
  • Andy Higgins (CEO)
  • Chris Owens (Head of research)
ProductsGrape and cherry licensing, including Cotton Candy grapes
Owner
  • Bloom Fresh International (2023–present)
Parent
  • AMFresh, EQT Future &
  • Paine Schwartz Partners (2023–present)
Website ifg.world

International Fruit Genetics (IFG) is a private Bakersfield, California-based fruit breeding company that licenses patented breeds of fruit to growers worldwide. The largest breeder of table grapes has licensed one type of this fruit to Bakersfield-based grower Grapery, Cotton Candy. [2] [3]

Contents

In August 2023, it was announced that a consortium led by AMFresh had completed the purchase of the company. Subsequently, EQT Future and Paine Schwartz Partners became minority partners in Bloom Fresh International, a new entity created when SNFL Group and IFG merged. [4]

History

Based in Bakersfield, IFG was founded in 2001 by David Cain, Jack Pandol, Glen Stoller, his wife Terrie Stoller, and their son Craig Stoller. [5] [6]

Cain was a fruit breeder who in the 1970s worked in Fresno, California as a researcher with the USDA, developing new varieties of table grapes and seedless raisins. [1] Meanwhile, Pandol was a UC Davis plant scientist graduate and third generation grape grower who had founded grape growing company Grapery in 1996. [7]

Glen and Terrie Stoller were the founders of Bakersfield-based grapevine nursery Sunridge Nurseries, a supplier of plant material to the wine and table grape industry, and their son Craig was the company's president. [8] [9] IFG formed a partnership with Grapery and Sunridge Nursery. [6]

A few months after forming IFG, Cain attended a trade show where researchers from the University of Arkansas were showing grapes. One was a purple Concord grape that tasted sweet like cotton candy, but was fragile with tiny seeds. He licensed that grape along with others from the university for IFG, and improved the size and texture by crossbreeding the grapes with sturdier California grapes. [1]

In 2010, after years of cross-pollinating and testing numerous grapes, IFG patented the Cotton Candy grape, and began licensing it to growers. [1] In the following year, its partner The Grapery was doing trial development of IFG's Sweet Sunshine, Sweet Surrender and Sweet Celebration. [6]

In 2018, a year after the first Candy Hearts grapes went on sale in California [10] , the company's Cheery Grand cherry, seen as a possible replacement for the Chelan cherry, began getting harvested in Chile and Australia. [2]

In July 2020, the company announced six new named varieties of table grapes, bringing their total to 40. [11] Also in 2020, long time lead grower and co-founder David Cain retired, and was replaced by new lead plant breeder Chris Owens. [12]

In April 2021, the company broke ground on development of a $12 million dollar breeding research and campus in McFarland, California, as part of its twenty year anniversary celebration. [13]

Business

IFG invents, develops, and licenses proprietary hybrid fruit varieties in the United States and other countries. The varieties are patented, and IFG's income is derived from licensing the intellectual property rights in the plants it develops. When IFG develops a new variety of fruit, it applies for "plant variety rights" in countries where it wants to license the grapes. The license allows growers to grow and sell the fruits. [14]

In order to breed seedless grapes, the breeders have to take out the baby embryos from the plant, then grow them in individual test tubes in the lab before they can be planted. A new variety can take from six to fifteen years to create. [15]

Products

Cotton Candy grapes in their packaging Cotton Candy grapes.jpg
Cotton Candy grapes in their packaging

IFG breeds custom varieties of fruits including grapes and cherries, patents them and licenses them to growers. Their grapes come in red, black or green varieties. [16] The company's licensed products include its signature Cotton Candy grapes, Sweet Celebration, a crunchy, cherry red, mid- to late-season seedless grape with a large berry, and Candy Hearts brand sweet red grapes. [1] [6] Other shapes and flavors have names invoking sweet flavors. [17] [10] As of July 2020, the company had developed 40 different varieties of grapes. [11]

Operations

IFG grapes are grown in the United States, Peru, Chile, Brazil and Mexico. [17] As of August 2018, the company's grapes were being sold in 14 countries. [18]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grape</span> Fruit growing on woody vines in clusters

A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus Vitis. Grapes are a non-climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raisin</span> Dark-colored dried large grape

A raisin is a dried grape. Raisins are produced in many regions of the world and may be eaten raw or used in cooking, baking, and brewing. In the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa, the word raisin is reserved for the dark-colored dried large grape, with sultana being a golden-colored dried grape, and currant being a dried small Black Corinth seedless grape.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Table grape</span> Grapes intended for consumption while fresh

Table grapes are grapes intended for consumption while fresh, as opposed to grapes grown for wine production, juice production, or for drying into raisins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fruit tree pollination</span>

Pollination of fruit trees is required to produce seeds with surrounding fruit. It is the process of moving pollen from the anther to the stigma, either in the same flower or in another flower. Some tree species, including many fruit trees, do not produce fruit from self-pollination, so pollinizer trees are planted in orchards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Twizzlers</span> American soft licorice-type candy

Twizzlers are the product of Y&S Candies, Inc., of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Twizzlers were first produced in 1929 by Young and Smylie, as the company was then called. The licorice company was founded in 1845, making it one of the oldest confectionery firms in the United States. Twizzlers ingredients consist of corn syrup, wheat flour, sugar, cornstarch, and smaller amounts of palm oil, salt, artificial flavor, glycerin, citric acid, potassium sorbate, Red 40, and soy lecithin. Because only the black Twizzlers contain extracts of the licorice plant, Twizzlers products are collectively referred to as licorice-type candy. Seventy percent of the annual production of Twizzlers are strawberry, the most popular Twizzlers flavor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sultana (grape)</span> "white" (pale green), oval seedless grape variety

The sultana is a "white", oval seedless grape variety also called the sultanina, Thompson Seedless, Lady de Coverly (England), and oval-fruited Kishmish. It is also known as İzmir üzümü in Turkey since this variety has been extensively grown in the region around İzmir. It is assumed to originate from Asia Minor, which later became part of the Ottoman Empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stenospermocarpy</span> Biological mechanism

Stenospermocarpy is the biological mechanism that produces parthenocarpy (seedlessness) in some fruits, notably many table grapes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dekopon</span> Variety of orange

Dekopon (デコポン) is a seedless and sweet variety of satsuma orange.

The Ferrara Candy Company is an American candy manufacturer, based in Chicago, Illinois, and owned by the Ferrero Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Florida wine</span> Wine made from grapes grown in Florida, United States

Florida wine refers to wine made from grapes and other fruit grown in the U.S. state of Florida. Wine grapes were grown in Florida earlier than anywhere else in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coronation (grape)</span> Variety of grape

Coronation grapes are a hybrid variety of table grape developed in Canada. Coronation grapes are popular throughout Canada, and are available during a short period in late summer and early fall. These grapes are characterized by their "vibrant blue-purple" colour, similar to the related Concord variety.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomcord</span> Grape varietal

Thomcord is a seedless table grape variety and a hybrid of the popular Thompson Seedless or Sultanina grape and Concord grape. Thomcord was developed in 1983 by Californian grape breeders working for the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), as part of a test to better understand a new seedless grape breeding procedure.

Cabernet blanc is a white German and Swiss wine grape variety that is a crossing of the French wine grape Cabernet Sauvignon and Regent. The grape was bred by Swiss grape breeder Valentin Blattner in 1991. Cabernet blanc has strong resistance to most grape disease including botrytis bunch rot, downy and powdery mildew and tends to produce loose clusters of small, thick-skinned grape berries which can hang on the vine late into the harvest season to produce dessert wines. Today the grape is found primarily in the Palatinate wine region of Germany with some experimental plantings in Spain and the Netherlands. In France, in the Languedoc, Domaine La Colombette is heavily investing in PIWI grapes. Amongst others the Cabernet Blanc in their cuvée "Au Creux du Nid", is gaining wide acclaim.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Propagation of grapevines</span>

The propagation of grapevines is an important consideration in commercial viticulture and winemaking. Grapevines, most of which belong to the Vitis vinifera family, produce one crop of fruit each growing season with a limited life span for individual vines. While some centenarian old vine examples of grape varieties exist, most grapevines are between the ages of 10 and 30 years. As vineyard owners seek to replant their vines, a number of techniques are available which may include planting a new cutting that has been selected by either clonal or mass (massal) selection. Vines can also be propagated by grafting a new plant vine upon existing rootstock or by layering one of the canes of an existing vine into the ground next to the vine and severing the connection when the new vine develops its own root system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cotton Candy grapes</span> Hybrid variety of grapes with a naturally occurring cotton candy flavor

Cotton Candy is a trademark for a variety of sweet white table grapes of the cultivar IFG Seven whose flavour has been compared to cotton candy. The grapes were developed by horticulturist David Cain and his team at Bakersfield, California-based fruit breeder International Fruit Genetics (IFG). The grapes are produced in California by grower Grapery, which began selling them in 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lapins cherry</span> Edible fruit cultivar

Lapins is a cultivar of cherry. It is a hybrid of the Van and Stella cultivars. It has been awarded the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

The Pacific Agri-Food Research Centre is an agricultural research centre in British Columbia, Canada. The centre has been historically important in the development of tree fruits. It is administered by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and includes sites at Summerland and Agassiz.

Van is a cultivar of cherry originating from Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">EverCrisp</span> Apple cultivar

EverCrisp is an American apple cultivar developed by the Midwest Apple Improvement Association (MAIA). Trademarked as EverCrisp, the MAIA-1 variety is a cross between two existing apple cultivars: the Honeycrisp and Fuji. Originally produced in Ohio, EverCrisp has since expanded to apple-growing regions across the Midwest in Michigan, Illinois and Indiana, in the Northeast in Pennsylvania and New York, and in the Northwest in Washington. The apple entered the public marketplace in 2017.

References

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  2. 1 2 "Bakersfield breeder touts new cherry". capitalpress.com. February 5, 2019. Retrieved November 19, 2019.
  3. "Satisfy your sweet tooth with grapes that taste like candy". cbsnews.com. August 10, 2016. Retrieved November 19, 2019.
  4. "AMFresh completes acquisition of IFG". Eurofruit. Retrieved 2023-08-22.
  5. "Couch's Corner: Exciting ag project breaks ground near McFarland". Bakersfield.com. May 8, 2021. Retrieved September 15, 2021.
  6. 1 2 3 4 "Jack Pandol: Carrying on the family tradition". issuu.com. October 28, 2011. Retrieved November 19, 2019.
  7. Smith, Anna (January 5, 2018). "ANNA SMITH: A chat with a vineyard innovator: The man behind cotton candy grapes". bakersfield.com. Retrieved September 11, 2019.
  8. "Woman kicks off plan to save ag lands". bakersfield.com. February 2, 2006. Retrieved November 19, 2019.
  9. "Made in Kern County: Sunridge Nurseries". turnto23.com. October 25, 2018. Retrieved November 19, 2019.
  10. 1 2 "My Entire Family Flipped for Candy Hearts Grapes". Better Homes and Gardens. February 12, 2021. Retrieved August 31, 2021.
  11. 1 2 "IFG adds new varieties to table grape portfolio". Produce News. July 14, 2020. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
  12. "Cherries without the chill". Good Fruit Grower. June 24, 2021. Retrieved August 31, 2021.
  13. "Fruit-breeder IFG breaks ground on $12 million campus near McFarland". Bakersfield.com. April 20, 2021. Retrieved August 31, 2021.
  14. "INTERNATIONAL FRUIT GENETICS, LLC v. P.E.R. ASSET MANAGEMENT TRUST". leagle.com. April 20, 2016. Retrieved November 19, 2019.
  15. "The Cotton Candy Grape: A Sweet Spin On Designer Fruit". npr.org. August 6, 2013. Retrieved November 19, 2019.
  16. "IFG grape varieties get PLU approval". fruitnet.com. May 18, 2018. Retrieved November 19, 2019.
  17. 1 2 "International Fruit Genetics host field day open to public". kget.com. August 5, 2018. Retrieved November 19, 2019.
  18. "Cotton Candy grape stems from Arkansas". arkansasonline.com. September 10, 2017. Retrieved November 19, 2019.