Argentina’s San Miguel is boosting its Southern Hemisphere citrus offering with the introduction of a number of new varieties for 2015. The company, which celebrates its 60th anniversary next year, said the first commercial volumes of Moria will be produced in Uruguay in the coming season. “Moria is a late season seedless mandarin developed by Israeli breeders which has shown excellent potential thanks to its exceptionally sweet flavour,” said commercial director Alejandro Moralejo.
In South Africa, the company has beefed up its late season orange portfolio with two late Navel varieties, Cambria and Witkrans. “We will also see an increase in production of M7 early Navels, which will help us to significantly extend our marketing window,” Moralejo said.
He noted that strategic agreements with a number of key Southern Hemisphere producers will enable San Miguel to start shipping mandarins from early February.
“Innovation is at the heart of everything we do,” he told Fruitnet. “Bringing a new variety to market is a drawn out and expensive process, yet we are currently trialling 14 new varieties to see which can best be adapted to local growing conditions.”
The full story can be read in the January edition of Eurofruit Magazine.
