The Plant Production and Marketing Board of Israel is helping growers of the Orri Jaffa mandarin to grow better, safer fruit, as the country looks to meet the rapidly growing demand for its branded mandarin.
Israel’s climate is typically hot, with minimum rain and water sources, which makes it challenging to grow high-quality mandarin varieties – and this is where the organisation can offer guidance to producers.
“We help local citrus growers develop and expand their businesses by offering technical know-how and business support,” explained Tal Amit, head of the citrus sector at Israel’s Plant Production and Marketing Board. “These efforts lead to a strong, stable demand for the Orri Jaffa brand and help ensure the Israeli growers’ success.”
The board has created a comprehensive long-term plan to help secure the Orri Jaffa brand in the international market, designed to achieve a number of things including supporting local farmers from the planting stage to production with training, including technical support on how to grow and harvest high-quality Orri Jaffa mandarins, and defining more stringent standards for the Orri Jaffa mandarin to significantly minimise waste.
The plan also involves creating education and training programmes and events, and provide on-site support in the orchards; building strong branding for the Orri Jaffa mandarin in Europe, China, Japan, and North America; finding and licensing reliable partners in the Southern hemisphere to provide high-quality Orri Jaffa mandarins in the summer to ensure a safe, sustainable and consistent year-round supply to retailers worldwide; Developing new distribution outlets (such as online websites) in countries such as China and Japan; and representing farmers to government officials and regulators to ensure growers get maximum support in terms of employment, VAT relief and other assistance to compete and increase sales in the international market.
Marketing is another key facet, with the board promoting on-site tastings of Orri Jaffa mandarins at selected leading European retailers while also conducting dozens of research projects in conjunction with the Volcani Research Center in Bet-Dagan, Israel, and other agricultural institutions, to continue to improve mandarin quality, find new varieties, fight fruit waste, and make Orri Jaffa production more sustainable.
