Sun World hires chief commercial officer, promotes licensing executives – Produce Blue Book

Bakersfield, Calif. – Oct. 1, 2024 – Sun World International BB #:341274 is appointing Gerardo Lugo to the new role of chief commercial officer (CCO) and promoting Global Licensing Directors Pablo Ramirez and Petri van der Merwe to vice presidents of global licensing. These moves reflect Sun World’s growth and the powerful opportunities triggered by the company’s acquisition of Biogold.  

“It’s a cause for celebration in any organization to announce the promotion of not just one, but two valued team members,” said Bernardo Calvo, Sun World’s president and COO. “But also adding Gerardo, who I’ve long known and deeply respect, reflects our collective optimism at Sun World. These three exemplary professionals are more than ready to hit the ground running on day one in their new positions, which is essential as there are many growth opportunities to be maximized.” 

Lugo, who will report to Calvo, brings three decades of agricultural experience to Sun World, primarily with Monsanto and Bayer’s row crop and vegetable seed businesses where he held numerous senior commercial and strategic roles, both at the regional level leading operations in Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, as well as at the global level. Lugo conceived and implemented countless innovative and sophisticated strategic initiatives to drive growth throughout his career. 

Sun World’s outsized growth trajectory reflects the work of many teammates and especially new VPs Pablo Ramirez and Petri van der Merwe. Not only have they worked together to enhance Sun World’s geographic footprint, they have also collaborated to add invaluable system-wide processes and discipline that allow the company to more effectively align with and serve their licensees. Ramirez and van der Merwe join recently appointed VP of Global Licensing Viresh Ramburan. These executives will report to Lugo and will manage the company’s licensing activities and staff.   

Sun World’s exponential growth reflects three realities: 

• First, the tremendous progress made by Sun World scientists and agronomists within the company’s core business. This work begun decades ago has yielded an extraordinarily robust pipeline of new, high-quality table grape and stone fruit offerings that customers have responded to very positively. This expansion takes the form of replacing older or public varietals with these superior new genetics, as well as with plantings in existing and new geographies. 
• Second, Biogold. The 2024 acquisition of South Africa based Biogold significantly increased Sun World’s portfolio to include that company’s leadership in citrus, mangoes and, eventually, avocado genetics. The synergy inherent in the Biogold acquisition is propelling Sun World’s ability to serve existing and new customers of both organizations with many of the world’s most in-demand fruit genetics. 
• Lastly, foundational to Sun World’s growth is the degree to which the company has leaned into emerging discoveries in artificial intelligence; breakthroughs in science; and the potential for the smart use of data and analytics. These opportunities are being weighed carefully with discipline and discernment as is always the Sun World way, but the company is convinced that speed to market to better serve licensees can be powerfully impacted by these innovations.  

About Sun World 

Sun World International is a global fruit variety development and licensing company propelled by emerging technologies and rooted since its inception in the principles of sustainability. Sun World pioneered seedless grape varietal development and its licensing and formalized their fruit genetics program three decades ago. With their acquisition of Biogold, the company specializes in table grapes, stone fruit, cherries, citrus, mangoes and avocados. More information about Sun World is available at sun-world.com.