Citrus fruits from Peru and South Africa are sold in the UK during the Israeli summer season under the most Israeli of brands - Jaffa. British supermarket chain Tesco plc (LSE: TSCO) markets the brand under license from the Citrus Marketing Board of Israel. Tesco pays the Citrus Board NIS 1 million per season for use of the brand.
Citrus Marketing Board secretary Hai Benyamini told "Globes", "In the UK, Jaffa citrus brand is well known, and ultimately, when oranges are sold there in seasons when there is no citrus in Israel, Tesco does excellent sales promotion for us, worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, preparing the market for our citrus when it arrives in late January. This is a good arrangement for them, and quite good for us, too."
The Citrus Board's revenue from the Tesco agreement is invested in pesticides against the Mediterranean Medfly, which severely damages orchards. At its peak, as a leading citrus exporter, Israel had 500,000 dunam (125,000 acres) of orchards. That figure has since fallen to 180,000 dunam (45,000 acres), and farmers hope to expand with new varieties developed at the Ministry of Agriculture's Volcani Center Institute of Plant Sciences, and considered desirable by the European market.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 12, 2011
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2011