The Citrus Marketing Board of Israel (CMBI) has reached an agreement with MTEX UK that allows the importer to bring Spanish navelinas from parent company Muñoz Mehadrin into the UK, to be sold exclusively at Tesco.

The oranges will fill the gap between the South African season and first arrivals of Israeli fruit. MTEX UK managing director Dov Warmen expects 10,000-15,000 boxes of Spanish Navelinas to be brought in between mid-November and the end of the year.

'The South African fruit will be finished by mid-November and we promised Tesco a continuous 12-month supply of Jaffa-branded fruit, so we are doing our utmost to provide that,' Ami Sivan, md of Mehadrin Tnuport Export told freshinfo. 'We sat down with the CMBI and convinced them that if we want to support our brand name in the UK for 12 months, we have to do everything in our power – otherwise we will lose out.' Growers in Israel own the brand and have been assured that Spanish oranges will leave the shelves as soon as any competitive Jaffa-branded Israeli fruit becomes available.

Sivan added: 'The moment Israeli grapefruit came on stream, we stopped sourcing from the southern hemisphere. We will never alter our focus from Israeli fruit, but we will continue to develop a year-round presence for our brand.' Research has shown that the presence of Jaffa-branded citrus on Tesco's shelves throughout the summer has had a positive effect on the retailer's citrus category, driving sales forward year-on-year, illustrating the lasting power of the Israeli brand.

See next week's Journal for a feature from Israel on Mehadrin Tnuport.

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