Cultivating grapes since 1882, the Karniel family founded Grapa Varieties Ltd., a privately held company, to which they bring their deeply rooted tradition and passion. Today, Grapa specializes in the breeding and commercialization of table grape varieties worldwide. Grapa’s growth and evolvement flows in many different channels that are intertwined in bringing their signature to the industry.
Due to recent developments, Grapa is proud to announce the appointment of Shiko Domovitz as Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Shiko succeeds Rafi Karniel, who led the company as CEO for the last 15 years and will now transition to Chairman of the Board. This appointment will leverage Rafi’s strategic vision and skillsets towards benefiting the governance of the company.
Shiko is the former CEO of Tali Grapes, the largest table grape growing and marketing cooperative in Israel, and has decades of experience in the fresh produce industry. With Grapa at the precipice of launching exciting new opportunities to the table grape industry, Shiko’s experience will help accelerate Grapa’s growth and development as the company enters this exciting new chapter. Shiko relays, “I was drawn to join Grapa because of the vision and values the company holds. I believe that my experience can contribute to the immediate fulfillment of Grapa’s great potential.”
This coming summer, during the July and August field days in California, Grapa is excited to be presenting five new varieties that have completed their commercial evaluation and hold characteristics and traits that the table grape sector is eagerly awaiting.
As the ARRA Varieties become ever more prevalent on the international stage, Grapa is implementing structural shifts and changes by establishing local offices in regions including Egypt and Morocco, and soon Australia, to ensure that every licensee has the hands-on attention and regional know-how necessary to maximize commercial potential. Moreover, Grapa is venturing into new and otherwise untouched territories that will uncover opportunities in new markets.
Fueling this growth is the development of the ARRA Breeding Program. The program has successfully been producing very early proven varieties that serve as a perfect solution for the inevitable gap in timing between the finish and start of each hemispheric region. Moreover, these varieties also offer growers an upper hand with shorter growing cycles, by which the ARRA Breeding program is proud to support values such as economic and environmental sustainability, by requiring substantially less water, labor, pesticide, and fertilizer.
Due to the ever-changing global climate, production stability for growers has become top priority. It is key to hold varieties that are adaptable to climate changes and severe weather conditions. Shachar Karniel, Breeder of the ARRA Varieties explains, “We have particularly focused on developing varieties that can withstand extreme weather conditions, ranging from tolerance to extreme heat to cold and rain. Furthermore, in most tropical regions, this advantage allows for two annual harvest cycles, significantly increasing growers’ returns.”
From Left: Nomi Karniel Padan, Grapa Commercial Director, Uzi Yaron, R&D Director, Adi Karniel, Director, Vered Karniel, Financial Director, Shakar Karniel, ARRA Varieties Breeder and Rafi Karniel, Chairman
The ARRA Breeding Program, co-founded by Giumarra and the Karniel families, together hold a natural collaboration in terms of aligned values, with both organizations founded as family businesses, bringing generations of agricultural wisdom and knowledge. Rafi Karniel explains: “From the few companies that lead in the table grape breeding industry today, Giumarra and Grapa are the only privately owned family businesses, not driven by return of investment, but remain loyal to our family values and personal approach.”
Grapa will be exhibiting at Fruit Logistica, Berlin on April 5th-7th at Hall 2.2 Stand A-02. Hope to see you there!
For more information:
Grapa Varieties
Email: info@grapaes.com
www.grapaes.com