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The NC Muscadine Grape Association held their annual conference at Lu Mil Vineyard in Dublin on Saturday.
President Whit Jones welcomed the guests and growers to the meeting. Attendees included people from Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.
During the morning session, growers heard from Michelle Wang, an International Marketing Specialist with the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, spoke about muscadine sales to China.
Wang noted that last she traveled to Hong Kong to promote Muscadine grapes. “The response is overwhelming. There is a lot interest and people in Hong Kong don’t really know what it (Muscadines) is,” said Wang.
She said that people are really interested in the nutritional value and then they want to know how to purchase Muscadines.
Wang said that in order to sell Muscadines in China, you must have a certificate and you must have the capacity to ship your product and keep it fresh. She also noted that North Carolina has a small Muscadine industry and that could mean a limited supply of Muscadines in the future. Wang said growers must work together to ensure there is enough product to meet the demand in the future.
Wang was followed by Tracy Fowler of Fresh Approach Farms in Kinston who spoke about new technologies in packaging materials. He showed those in attendance a box that was designed to keep the products shipped in them fresh.
He noted that the new product is designed by scientists in Canada. The boxes are coated with special polymers that enable the product to “breathe” during shipping.
Fowler said that his farm had tested the new technology by shipping sweet potatoes to Europe. He said the boxes extended the life of the sweet potatoes by a couple of weeks. The sweet potatoes arrived without any mold growing on them and they were able to be stored for up to weeks after arriving without any problems.
Fowler said they did have to over pack the boxes with potatoes so that by the time they arrived in Europe they boxes would weigh 40 pounds each. He said when the boxes left the farm they weighed 42 one-half pounds per box. Fowler noted that if the boxes do not weigh 40 pounds the you potentially can be penalized.
He said they are also testing the boxes with pomegranates and plums.
Susan Kostelecky who is an expert in export documentation with the US Department of Agriculture. Kostelecky discussed the types of certificates and documentation a grower must have in order to export their products to other countries.
She noted that are some different requirements depending on which country one chooses to ship their products to sell. For example, she said Japan and Korea are very strict with their imports and mainland China requires the buyer to obtain an import certificate for the product.
During the morning session, growers also learned about frost/freeze protection from Dr. Barclay Poling who is a Small Fruit Specialist who is retired from NC State University. He spoke about his research using strawberries to learn about frost damage to crops. Dr. Poling talked about the Easter Freeze event that took place in 2006 and how devastating it was to many growers.
Dr. Poling said he thought then that the crop could have been saved with the use of irrigation technology like that used with strawberries.
Dr. Poling explained that based in research, when faced with a potential frost event, growers have two choices to protect their crops — irrigation or wind fans.
Dr. Poling said that in Napa Valley in California growers use an over-the-vine sprinkler system to irrigate the vines and protect them from frost.
The sprinkler system costs about $2500 per acre to install. Dr. Poling said using fans to try to move the cold air away from the vines is very costly.
He said he recommended looking into the over-the-vine irrigation system.
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