Perfection Fresh (Aust)

Perfection Fresh wins rights to commercialise the first Australian bred seedless mandarins

CSIRO has awarded Sydney-based fresh produce marketing company, Perfection Fresh Australia, the rights to commercialise two new seedless mandarin varieties bred by CSIRO.

CSIRO plant breeder Dr Stephen Sykes said the varieties - Merbeingold 2336 and Merbeingold 2350 - were the first two seedless mandarins to be deliberately bred in Australia and were the result of more than 20 years' research and development.

Perfection Fresh and CSIRO are yet to allocate the varieties a brand name for commercial fruit sales.

Dr Sykes made the announcement at the Citrus Australia National Conference held in Mildura, Victoria from November 8-11.

Perfection Fresh chief executive officer, Michael Simonetta, said Perfection Fresh was now seeking expressions of interest from experienced citrus growers to produce what would be the first specialty mandarins it would take to market.

"This is a tremendous opportunity for Perfection Fresh and the growers themselves to move into the seedless citrus market which has enormous, and largely untapped, potential in Australia," Mr Simonetta said.

"While Perfection Fresh has marketed seeded citrus lines both in Australia and in the export arena for some time, there has been an increasing demand for seedless varieties from consumers around the world. Based on our successful experience with marketing seedless grapes, we are confident seedless mandarins will be a consumer citrus choice of the future."

CSIRO general manager business development, Lionel Henderson, said the selection for a commercialiser began over two years ago when expressions of interest were in the two varieties were first sought. Perfection Fresh was selected from among seven applicants, he said.

"The licence allows Perfection Fresh to manage the production and supply of these varieties. Growers will be registered to produce the fruit and supply to Perfection Fresh," Mr Henderson said.

Dr Sykes said the two released varieties originated from a series of controlled crosses first devised by CSIRO in 1984 to recombine the characteristics of popular Imperial and Ellendale mandarins for selection under Australian conditions.

"In 1992 we started looking at the family resulting from those crosses and identified 10 promising hybrids which were sent to growers at 10 different sites around Australia. These two marketable varieties emerged from the trials," Dr Sykes said.

"These varieties have slightly different traits that contribute to their seedless characteristic, and accordingly, registered growers will be provided with information to maximise the production of seedless fruit.

"The seedless Merbeingold 2336 matures from June to July and Merbeingold 2350, during late July to August."

"Because the varieties will be marketed under one brand name, this effectively increases the seasonal availability of the new seedless mandarins from June to August. The ability of these new varieties to store for eight weeks extends the season even further."

Dr Sykes said both varieties produced sweet, juicy and easy-to-peel fruits which readily separated into segments. 

"They both produce attractive bright-orange fruit with thin, yet robust skins which will suit export conditions and was one of the key characteristics we sought to achieve," he said.

"In Europe and the United Kingdom where seedless citrus fruit have been available for a long time, consumers expect nothing less and in Japan, seedless mandarins are paramount. In the 1980s, CSIRO and the citrus industry foresaw the potential for an expanding market for seedless, convenient citrus fruits and a breeding program was started to develop unique Australian varieties."

Australia's citrus industry accounted for less than one per cent of world production with mandarins representing about a fifth of the industry, Dr Sykes said.

The first Merbeingold mandarin trees are expected to be grafted onto rootstocks in nurseries in early 2010 to produce commercial quantities of fruit within three years.

CSIRO's breeding project is part of the National Citrus Scion Breeding Program and also involves Queensland's Department of Primary Industries and close collaboration with Australia's citrus industry. This breeding program was funded by Horticulture Australia Limited (HAL) using the citrus levy and matched funds from the Australian Government. Other seedless varieties from the program are currently under development in trials around Australia.