BAKERSFIELD, CA - Just as moving into a new house can be an exciting opportunity for growth, so too is moving to a new facility for companies. Sun World recently announced that it will be introducing a new Center for Innovation, a facility two years in the making, that will house the company’s operations and serve as a new base from which it will breed, assess, and unveil new and exciting produce varieties.

“We are intentionally thinking big, and long-term. This facility will house much more than the table grape and stonefruit breeding programs we currently operate. We have bold plans to expand into developing other crops that delight consumers,” explained Vice President of Variety Development, Terry Bacon.

Sun World broke ground on the facility, located in Wasco, California, in August of 2019 after planning and designing the facility for over a year, according to a press release. Prior to introducing its new facility, the company carried out its breeding work at its longstanding Variety Development Center near the location of the Center for Innovation.

The Center for Innovation is seated on a 160-acre campus and includes a 17,000-square-foot building to house the company’s experimental research farm, laboratories for molecular breeding, embryo rescue, seedling transfers, and post-harvest assessment. The facilities also include grow rooms, greenhouses, and fruit tasting facilities for new grape and stonefruit varieties. The building features offices for staff along with an outdoor events venue.

The company also announced that the new center is dedicated in memory of Sun World’s Founder, Howard P. Marguleas.

“My father’s notable passion for introducing consumers to unique and flavorful new fruit and vegetables was legendary. As such, we thought it was particularly fitting to dedicate this extraordinary new facility in his memory,” Sun World Chief Executive Officer David Marguleas noted. “This passion to innovate continues to shape our vision and guide our business philosophy and will enable us to bring growers, retailers, and consumers an even wider array of new fruit for many decades to come.”

With a new facility in hand, we here at AndNowUKnow look forward to seeing the upcoming innovations from Sun World and are excited to see what new products may be in the works.

Sun World