UA Table-Grape Program Lands Two More Patents

John Clark, a professor or horticulture at the University of Arkansas, had patents approved this winter for two new varieties of table grapes. The director of the fruit-breeding program at the Dale Bumpers College Agricultural, Food & Life Sciences, Clark said his new seedless table grapes, named Jupiter and Neptune, are intended to give Arkansas growers a hearty, marketable new fruit option.

They are designed to be competitive in the market place, Clark said, whether that’s in retail stores, at local farmer’s markets, for brokerage or for shipping across the country. Clark, the former director of research of the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station in Clarksville, said these varieties are unique because of their desirable qualities.

The Jupiter in particular has a muscat flavor similar to that of “old world” vidas vinifera grapes, the kind that are used to make wine.

“It’s a flavor that a lot of people find attractive,” Clark said. “It’s the first seedless table grape that’s come from east of the Rocky Mountains. It’s the result of long-term efforts from the UA’s table grape breeding program that [Professor] James Moore began in 1964.”

Over the years, the UA has produced seven seedless table grape varieties. It recently filed for its 21st fruit patent.

Both the Jupiter and Neptune grapes were produced in 1998 and 1999, but the patent process is slow. Royalties to the UA will be 25 cents per vine, which could wholesale for about $2 each and retail for substantially more. Hard wood cuttings of Jupiter and Neptune vines have already been distributed to licensed nurseries.

According to the Arkansas Agricultural Statistics Service, a field office of the United States Department of Agriculture, the value of fruits and tree nuts grown in Arkansas is down 29 percent from $15.3 million in 1997 to $10.8 million in 2001. Last year’s figures aren’t yet available.

Those numbers, Clark said, are cyclical and affected dramatically each year by weather. He said any time that Arkansas’ peach crop has frost damage like it did in 2001, it shows. Acreage has also been affected by frost damage in White County that discouraged farmers from continuing to plant table grapes.

The total acreage of grapes grown in Arkansas during 2002 was down 7 percent from 1,500 during 2001 to 1,400 last year. But the yield per acre during 2002 was up 122 percent to four tons compared with 1.8 tons per acre in 2001.

Their production value in 2002 was about $2.5 million, a 79 percent gain over $1.4 million in 2001.

The big new push in fruit development, Clark said, is what is being called “the fourth berry.” Blackberries are now showing up in retail stores such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Harps Food Stores Inc.

“Ten years ago, you would not have seen any blackberries for sale at the grocery,” Clark said. “But there’s probably 200-300 acres of blackberries being produced for shipping in Arkansas this year. A couple hundred acres of blackberries produces a bunch. This is business that Arkansas didn’t have before. It comes down to healthier eating habits and availability.”

Blueberry acreage was increased to 450 acres from 2001 to 2002. But the blueberry yield (2,960 pounds per acre) and production value ($1.5 million) were up 46 percent and 25 percent, respectively.