European demand for Tango mandarins is outstripping demand according to breeder Eurosemillas and its joint venture partner AMC Fresh who hold the rights to the variety.
The Tango Fruit partnership closed programmes with a number of major European retailers at this year’s Fruit Logistica and signed up for trials with several other companies during the current season but said that many orders were left unfilled due to limited supplies.
However, with production of the late season premium seedless mandarin is set to increase in 2017, the partnership said availability would improve significantly, with a higher volume coming from Spain and counterseasonal suppliers allowing supermarkets to plan year-roundd programmes.
“More importantly, Tango has consolidated its position in Europe’s premium retail channels and had a real impact on competing varieties,” Tango Fruit’s director Juan José de Dios Contzen said.
The variety, registered in the EU as Tang Gold, was developed by the University of California Riverside.
“Since it burst onto the citrus scene in a similar way that Cuties and Halo did in the US, Tango has raised standards, bring added value thanks to its excellent flavour, attractive colouring and easy peeling,” de Dios said.
Moreover, he noted that unlike other so-called low seed varieties, Tango and Gold Nugget [the other mandarin variety controlled by Tango Fruit] are the only ones that guarantee on average a presence of almost zero seeds, even when cross pollination has been used.
“And because the variety doesn’t generate seeds in neighbouring plantations, it respects the crucial pollinating role in clementine and mandarin production played by bees,” de Dios explained.
In recent years Eurosemillas has been developing a global production strategy incorporating growers in Spain and in key Southern Hemisphere supply countries like Chile and Peru, in order to guarantee year-round supplies.
