Sun World’s proprietary Sugrafiftythree variety marketed as Ruby Rush® accelerates early-season supply with vibrant color, high yields, and global grower adoption
Sun World International has opened the 2025 table-grape campaign with an unusually early splash, shipping commercial volumes of its proprietary red seedless variety Sugrafiftythree marketed under the RUBY RUSH® brand weeks ahead of the traditional start to the category.
Developed by the company’s private breeding program in Bakersfield, California, the grape has been positioned to solve long-running color and flavor challenges that often dog early-season reds, giving growers in at least ten countries a premium alternative that reaches retailers sooner and commands higher margins.
Plantings and trial blocks from Chile to Egypt have demonstrated the variety’s ability to color up naturally, yield heavily and travel well, traits that have accelerated adoption among Sun World licensees and nudged the more temperamental Flame Seedless off early shipping calendars.
Commercial acreage is now expanding across Chile, Peru, Brazil, Australia, South Africa, Spain, Italy, Mexico, Israel and the United States, and early market feedback indicates strong consumer pull driven by its bright ruby skin, pronounced crunch and 18–20 °Brix sweetness.
“Sugrafiftythree, as RUBY RUSH, isn’t just another early-season option it’s a new benchmark. This season, Sugrafiftythree is helping us meet the market earlier and sets a new standard for early-season fruit.”
Pablo Ramirez, Vice-President of Licensing at Sun World
The variety is also rewriting Sun World’s own playbook: executives say Sugrafiftythree has moved from breeding block to global commercialization faster than any other cultivar in the firm’s 30-plus-year history.
To capitalize on that momentum, the company staged two field-day previews for Chilean growers earlier this year and has scheduled nine more technical showcases through the Southern Hemisphere winter in Egypt, Mexico, Italy, Brazil, Peru, South Africa and Australia, aiming to lock in additional licensed hectares before the 2026 season.
The newcomer’s biggest selling point is timing.
By maturing roughly two weeks ahead of standard early reds and avoiding the erratic coloration that can plague Flame Seedless when night-time temperatures stay warm, Sugrafiftythree lets shippers enter export markets while retail shelves are still dominated by green and black varieties an opening that often commands a premium for eye-catching red fruit.
Growers report pack-out percentages above 90 % and a labor-friendly cluster architecture that reduces thinning costs.
Retailers, meanwhile, are seizing on the brand story.
Sun World marketing materials pitch RUBY RUSH® as a “radiant” grape that “crunches like jewels,” language echoed in social-media rollouts and point-of-sale kits now circulating among supermarket chains in North America and Europe.
Category buyers contacted during the variety’s soft launch noted that the berry’s consistent scarlet hue photographs well for online grocery platforms, an increasingly critical consideration as e-commerce penetration deepens across fresh produce.
With Northern Hemisphere growers ramping up plantings and Southern Hemisphere partners already booking early-season orders, Sun World forecasts a sharp increase in global volumes over the next three years.
Additional test blocks are under evaluation in Portugal and Greece, and company technicians are fine-tuning region-specific canopy and fertility protocols to lock in the high Brix-to-acid ratio that underpins the grape’s flavor profile.
If those trials hold, Sugrafiftythree could anchor a family of related red varieties designed to cover the full calendar and give Sun World a proprietary foothold in every shipping window.
