The groves before (above) and after (below).
80 thousand trees of the 100 thousand planted on 160 hectares have been replaced. They include 18 cultivars on 6 different rootstocks and 2 pomegranate varieties.
It was a huge investments - replanting costs were above €3 million, not to mention all the maintenance and management costs before reaching full production (at least 4/5 yeas).
New selection combinations developed by CRA and DOFATA were planted with rootstocks resistant to the Tristeza virus.
In order to increase the potential and achieve better results, the company also decided to extend the blood orange campaign by introducing new early and late cultivars. This way, a fruit that was once available only between January and March will now be available between December and May. The best results were obtained with Tarocco Fondaco Nuovo, Tarocco Ippolito, Tarocco TDV, Moro and Sanguinelli.
The clones applied to the new rootstocks enabled the diversification of plants and harvesting campaigns.
Oranfrizer also invested on other types of citrus fruit such as Summer navel, ultra-late blonde oranges, triploid hybrids Mandared and Mandalate, and NL 2KR lemons, which are already harvested in September.
Nello Alba (in the photo) from Oranfrizer explained that "we are working to maintain high quality levels, though there will be some produce with a few defects. It will be a challenge to source great quantities of top quality oranges with good grades because a lot of areas were compromised by the weather and the Tristeza virus. If things continue like this, prices will definitely increase."
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