Following commercial success with three new pomegranate varieties in Mediterranean and North African markets, Spain-headquartered Citrus Genesis is now working to establish production in South Africa.

Purple Queen

The variety management company that is part of the Muñoz Group has been overseeing the Purple Queen, MR-100 and Kingdom cultivars in Spain for around five years, with fruit and plant sales also in Portugal, Italy, Morocco and Tunisia.

Citrus Genesis manages a unique range of pomegranate and citrus varieties, with these three most recent pomegranates bred by its partner in Spain, Caliplant.

It said the three cultivars 'significantly improved the supply' for markets including fresh, prepared fruit salads, and juicing.

Citrus Genesis' business development manager Mateu Chilet Torrent told www.freshfruitportal.com the varieties were currently under quarantine in South Africa and were in the process of being registered.

"We expect them to be released at the end of 2015," Chilet said.

"The plan for the pomegranates is to introduce them first in the country and later on start with the propagation and all the plantings. We will implement a limit of hectares per variety, following our citrus model, in order to make sure that the supply is lower than the demand.

"It’s important that growers maximise their returns."

Chilet said Citrus Genesis had been in contact with various companies in South Africa who had shown interest in the new varieties of the topical fruit. Negotiations are also underway to select a nursery to propagate the varieties and sell the plants to growers who previously acquire the corresponding license.

While it is too early to know where the pomegranates will eventually be grown, the representative said potential locations included the Western Cape - where Citrus Genesis has an office in Stellenbosch - as well as the northeastern provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga.

Chilet said that which markets the three new varieties might be sold to would largely be dictated by the properties of each individual cultivar.

MR-100

The mid-season MR-100 is the sweetest of the three and was described as having a 'rich and full-bodied' taste. The cultivar also has tender arils and is highly productive.

Purple Queen is also very sweet, but less so than the MR-100. Chilet said perhaps its best attribute was the commercial opportunity due to the very early marketing window, as well as its good eating quality.

He added Purple Queen's size and 'fantastic' external colouration made it a 'very appealing piece of fruit' to consumers.

The third variety, Kingdom, is also the largest and belongs to the acidic group of pomegranates that also includes the popular Wonderful cultivar. Chilet described its taste as 'refreshing and well-balanced' and said it was harvested during the late season.

"So two of them are sweet and one is semi-acidic. At the moment one of the most common varieties is Wonderful, which is acidic. Sweet cultivars are generally more focused on Latin and Arab-based markets. It remains to be seen how sweet varieties would be received in the South African market," Chilet said.

Kingdom

"Our semi-acidic one is similar to Wonderful, but its commercial window is later and our evaluation records indicate it is by far more productive. The eating quality of Kingdom is prefered overall, according to blind taste panels carried out in different markets."

“In addition, none of the three cultivars have shown problems with [the fruit rot] Alternaria in Spain”

Chilet added that Caliplant, which also breeds citrus and stonefruit, had spent considerable time and effort developing the varieties and carrying out market research in Europe.

"For us it was important to know what was on the shelves and what the customers were asking for. That’s why we eventually came up with these varieties," he said.

International market research is also being carried out in order to develop new commercial brands to contribute toward product distinction, consumer recognition as well as conveying a quality guarantee message.

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