Bigger, Sweeter, Juicier Oranges And Lemons

The State’s best oranges and lemons are heading towards supermarkets and greengrocers as researchers work on determining the best citrus varieties for Australian conditions.

The NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, along with the Western Australian Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development are working with Hort Innovation, the grower-owned, not-for-profit horticulture research and development corporation, to ensure growers are getting the most out of their citrus trees and consumers are getting the best possible products.

With more than 60 new varieties of oranges, mandarins, lemons, limes and grapefruit having been developed around the world recently - focusing on taste, number of seeds, how easy they are to peel, and growing season length - researchers will evaluate whether these citrus varieties are suitable for Australian conditions.

All of these varieties have the potential to be the next citrus variety introduced supermarkets and local fruit stores.

This $1.97 million research project is funded by Hort Innovation, using the Citrus research and development levy, contributions from the Australian Government and co-investment from NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development.

The programme is being led by the NSW Department, with work being undertaken from the Dareton Primary Industries Institute in the Sunraysia district of southwestern NSW.

There are also trial sites in Harvey, Manjimup and Gingin in Western Australia.

Since 1995 the researchers have independently evaluated 100 citrus varieties using more than a dozen rootstocks.

This research has provided robust field performance and fruit quality data to help growers determine which variety has the best market potential ensuring growers get the most out of their citrus trees.

Hort Innovation general manager and production and sustainability, Dr Anthony Kachenko said the independent assessment of citrus varieties looked at key performance data including fruit quality, tree yield and fruit size and sweetness, as well as assessing any issues producers might need to consider when growing the trees.

“The results of the programme help growers identify new varieties that might suit their production regions and make them aware of key consumer and production traits of the varieties.

“This programme garners significant support from growers, with the majority of Australian citrus growers using this information to make key production decisions.”Manager at Super Seasons, a grower, packer and marketer of Australian citrus fuit in Hillston NSW, Peter Ceccato said NSW BPIRD’s stuff, educational resources, field walks and industry events had also provided us with great knowledge that they are able to take back if their orchards and integrate into their current varieties to get the best returns from their trees.

“This is money well spent from our Hort Innovation Citrus R&D Fund levies,” Mr Ceccato said.

“NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development Citrus Research Horticulturalist said both global and lcoal citrus breeding programmes were responding to consumer demands by targeting the lowest number of seeds, most appealing task, and easiest to peel fruit available for as many months of the year as possible.

“The fruit that are released from those programmes ware evaluated in Australian conditions - both in NSW and Western Australia - to test those claims..

“Growers, packers and marketers use the information we develop to make informed decisions on those varieties - to plant, pack and sell the best qualify fruit they can.”

Case Study - Tangold Mandarin

A modern success story is the rise of a seedless Afourer mandarin called Tangold.

Classically, Afourer is a seeded variety, supplied to market as seedless by being planted in isolation from other citrus, avoiding the cross pollination that forms seeds, or under nets for the same reason.

Tangold was developed using modern technology that allows it to grow adjacent to other pollen-rich varieties without ever producing seeds.

While the variety is well-known internationally, there can be complications in importation that result in the variety not being true to type.

To assist local growers, the variety was able to confirm that it had a very low number of seeds, the most suitable time for it to be picked and sold into the specific growing region and what the skin condition would be like in the grower’s particular environment - compared to international conditions.

Growers also had the opportunity to see the variety growing in similar conditions before making the decision to plant it themselves.

Many Australian growers picked up this new variety in place of Afourer and are very happy with their decision.

• Topics:

• Food
• Agriculture & Farming