The implantation of the Sando clementine protected variety, a spontaneous mutation of the fina, which is harvested between the third week of December and February, is advancing thanks to the new Sando Clementine organization in the territories where it originated (the south of Castellon, Valencia, and Andalusia) where it has proven to be fully adapted. A clementine that was born here, says one of their slogans.
"The Sando campaign started with good prices for producers and excellent fruit quality. Despite the adverse weather conditions there were this year, we expect to harvest 15 million kilos, mainly in the province of Castellon, Valencia, and Andalusia," stated Joan Antoni Caballol i Angelats, Managing Director of Sando Clementine.
"In the last two years, producers with organic certification have become very interested in this variety because its agronomic improvement has led to better calibers and because its innate resistance helps protect it against adverse weather conditions and other issues, such as alternaria. Thus, producers are also interested in using it to substitute varieties that are very affected by the alternaria," he said. "It has an intense color, no seeds, and has a high productivity every year, as it is not subjected to alternance, which helps farmer have profitable farms."
Sando Clementine SL, the breeder since the end of 2020, has promoted a path of dialogue, of agreements with cooperatives and unions in the sector (such as the Unió de Llauradors), to find solutions to the conflicts they inherited and to find the best economic plans for professional producers, with a special sensitivity towards the group of young farmers, with loans without interest or guarantees.
Sando is also opening up to other citrus-producing countries, such as South Africa (where it's ending the quarantine period), Australia (where it has started the quarantine period), and it also plans to enter Chile and Peru in 2022, so that this variety is available for 6 to 7 months a year.
The variety started to be labeled in the 2017-18 campaign with the GESVATEC system, which allows marking the traceability and authenticity of the Sando. "This is not a trivial element. It contributes to the knowledge of the variety and that it comes from a legal producer, something that translates into better prices for exporters and producers. Unfortunately, many businesses do not properly label the variety and in some cases use other means to sell it. It is essential and mandatory to correctly mark the varieties. It's the ethical thing to do for the final consumer," stated Joan Caballol.
"A system for geolocation of licensed farms and satellite surveillance that helps field inspectors detect the unlicensed farms that cause serious damage to legal producers were implemented last years with the technological help of Visualnacert," he added.
"The control work has allowed us to detect 41 farms that are illegally using the Sando variety. The easy and practical thing would be to file criminal lawsuits to find out who the offenders are. For the moment, however, we will monitor who collects the fruit from those farms. We used to appeal to dialogue, held our hand out if you will. Now, we are going to give people a limited time to regularize their illegal productions. If the owners and producers accept to legalize their situation, their farms will be treated as new production sites and we'll provide them with payment facilities. This period will be open until January 20, 2022. As of that date, we'll be handling these issues in court.
For more information:
Joan Antoni Caballol i Angelats
Sando Clementine
Av. Generalitat, 104, 1ºC
43500-TORTOSA
Tel +34 609045598
[email protected]
www.sandoclementine.com