The harvesting of seedless Autumn King grapes should start within the first week of September. "Ripening is a few days early due to the summer heat. Yields are satisfactory, as is the weight of the bunches and the size of the grapes," reports Giuseppe Franchini (pictured below), production manager at Franchini Farm Srl, an Apulian company that a few years ago decided to expand this cultivar of Californian origin, whose exclusive licensee is the governmental organisation California Table Grape Commission.
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"Every year, the grapes are highly appreciated by operators in Central and Northern Europe, markets that prefer greener and less sugary grapes. Deliveries to Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Norway will start soon and continue at least until late November. The excellent cold-storage of the grapes would allow us to extend the season even beyond the Christmas holidays, but we have never been able to extend the commercial calendar so far, as stocks have always run out earlier. For the upcoming campaign, we are counting on an increase in harvested volumes, so that we will be able to reach up to 60 tonnes/hectare, with prices that in 2023 were around 1.40 €/kg in the field. There are 40 dedicated hectares in total, all in production, planted at different times."
Franchini considers the Autumn King cultivar an ideal choice for those who are still undecided and confused about which grapes to plant. "I would recommend it to farmers who are still uncertain. It is a generous and vigorous variety with low running costs and which tolerates high temperatures very well. It requires few manual agronomic practices and it is suitable to obtain premium products. Moreover, it does not require many phytosanitary interventions and does not bind entrepreneurs to stringent commercial constraints. In Puglia there are still many companies at the mercy of varietal uncertainty, which keep fallow land on which they used to have traditional vineyards, also due to the many selections proposed by national and foreign breeders."
For more information:
Franchini Farm Srl
70042 Mola di Bari (Bari)
+39 392 840 5737
[email protected]
franchinifarm.com