Moroccan mandarins are on the water bound for Ireland where fruit importer Donnelly Fresh Produce is gearing up to supply the premium class ClemenGold-branded citrus to the Musgrave-owned SuperValu supermarket chain. At www.freshfruitportal.com we spoke with citrus buyer Graham McNamee for more details.

"We wanted to bring something different to the Irish market and have always tried to deal with the highest quality product and this fits the bill perfectly," he said.

"Going into Musgrave and mainly into their top-tier brand Signature Taste, this will prove to be something special.

"This fruit is the top tier of easy peelers at this time of year and have to meet a high-end specification level to do with sugar levels, skin finish, juice content and they are virtually seedless, because nothing is 100% seedless. The brand hits all of this very high criteria and the synergies worked perfectly."

This year’s program with Donnelly’s comes off the back of trial successes last fall when small volumes of mandarins from Southern Hemisphere growers were tested on the Irish market.

"You might say what we did in September 2014 was half a trial but it really gave us the springboard for this season and to really go for it and the idea is to extend this as long as possible.

"The high quality of the fruit is the main point of difference; we’re not just trying to sell something to make a margin, we’re trying to offer consumers a high quality product that they know will be excellent every time they come back to it.

"The fruit is on the water now and will be in the stores on January 29. Predominant volumes from Morocco are approximately 60 tons a week over a 12 week season, so we’re looking at about 720 tons."

ClemenGold brand stands for quality

The Donnelly supply is only part of the story for South African-based trademark ClemenGold, which is steadily expanding its international campaign.

Alongside the Moroccan grown mandarins, Spanish produced fruit is to be added into the mix with ClemenGold brand director Michelle Kruger heading off to visit Spanish orchards last Friday.

"We do Southern and Northern Hemisphere programs with our Southern Hemisphere campaign being slightly bigger. During the Northern Hemisphere program there will be fruit in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and probably in Canada and a small program into the U.K. as well.

"During the southern hemisphere we have got large programs going into far more regions.

"We’ll be visiting all the big citrus producing areas in Spain and in the global program there will be both Spanish and Moroccan fruit."

Kruger explains how important sourcing quality citrus is to the ClemenGold brand and hopes to bring on board other varieties that match the premium quality characteristics of the Nadorcott.

"A fruit brand rests on a few cornerstones of which the most important one, like any brand, is that you need to be able to have consistency of good eating-quality fruit. For us this is really important; you can take everything else away but if the consumer doesn’t get good quality fruit, then you shouldn’t have a brand.

"There are all the bells and whistles of branding, packing and promotion but in the end we are selling a promise that ClemenGold is going to be a good eating fruit and we have taken a lot of time to build relationships and find producers that can deliver into the program according to the quality standards."

www.freshfruitportal.com