During the past week South African consumers have been able to start enjoying Tango Fruit™ mandarins again, well before the local harvest. This is a follow-up to the successful introduction last year of locally grown Tango Fruit™ mandarins to Freshmark, the fresh produce division of Shoprite Checkers, the leading and biggest supermarket chain in Africa.
The aim will eventually be to have Tango Fruit™ mandarins available year round on the supermarkets' shelves.
The imported Tangos are offered in various packaging choices, with the largest fruit (calibre 1XX) sold loose, medium fruit sold in cartons and bags and smaller fruit sold in punnets in order of descending size.
Young Tango orchards are coming on-stream and volumes are expected to increase strongly in coming years.
Dr Johan van Deventer, chief executive of Freshmark, which is the fresh produce category manager for Shoprite Checkers, said that the group was well satisfied with the consumer's response to Tango. Importing Tango from Spain will help prolong the season for this beautiful, deep orange, easy peeler mandarin with no seeds. During the coming local season they expect to increase sales incrementally as more Tango becomes available.