The Diazteca variety is currently in limited production in Mexico, with trees available under license from Sun World beginning in 2024
Sun World International has announced the acquisition of the Kankun mango variety from Diazteca.
The move is seen as a strategic addition to Sun World’s nascent mango breeding and licensing programme, and is the first commercial Sun World mango variety available for license.
The signing ceremony took place in San Diego on 6 June and was attended by David Marguleas, CEO of Sun World and Ismael Diaz, director general of Diazteca.
“For nearly 40 years, Sun World has brought distinctive and flavourful grapes and stonefruit to leading fruit growers around the world,” said Marguleas. “Those growers and others will soon have access to the Kankun mango as the first of many new cultivar releases we plan to introduce to the global produce industry.
”If you like Tommy Atkins, you’re going to love Kankun with its sweet tropical flavour, distinctive red blush, thin seed, low fibre content and early-ripening harvest advantage,” he noted. ”The Kankun variety also maintains better quality through the required hot water treatment process.”
“We are pleased to work with the Sun World team to license the unique Kankun variety,” said Diaz. “Their expertise and history of successful product commercialization will be invaluable.”
Diazteca is one of Mexico’s largest mango suppliers, and its research team developed the Kankun variety on its farms in Escuinapa, Sinaloa Mexico.
After favourable results from testing the variety with leading supermarket retailers, Diazteca and Sun World agreed to a transaction that would make the Kankun variety broadly available under license to mango growers, marketers, retailers, and consumers worldwide and to enable Sun World researchers to utilise the variety in their breeding programme.
“Sun World continues to expand our portfolio to encompass additional specialty fruit crops, through partnerships like Diazteca and our own variety development initiatives and expertise,” said Jennifer Petersen, chief science officer for Sun World.
“We’re excited to begin leveraging the Kankun variety and its unique attributes in our own breeding programme,” added Moises Gonzalez, specialty crop breeder for Sun World.
The Kankun variety is currently in limited production in Mexico, with trees available under license from Sun World beginning in 2024.
Sun World said that it planned to test the variety within its global licensing network.
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