Tango tangerine has been awarded protection by South Africa, which has confirmed IVIA reports with new tests.
Eurosemillas, the Spanish company that exploits the rights of the late tangerine Tango throughout the world except in the USA, recently received confirmation of the protection awarded to this citrus fruit by South Africa’s Agriculture, Forestry & Fisheries Department. The recognition of this variety’s registration by this country’s authorities is particularly important, not only because it has taken place in what is the second leading exporter of fresh citrus fruits in the world after Spain, but also because it has come about after carrying out a new DUS analysis. This is the method defined by the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants to technically prove that a variety is ‘different (from all the others), uniform and stable.’ And the tests carried out by South Africa during four years (2012-2016) basically ratify the same varietal description that had been determined firstly by the University of California, Riverside (which obtained the tangerine and patented it in the USA), and by IVIA itself (Valencian Institute of Agricultural Research); namely, that it is a seedless late tangerine whose pollen is also sterile when it comes to fertilising the fruit of other neighbouring plantations, even under cross-pollination conditions.
Tango (registered in Spain as Tango Gold) has become one of the most widely protected citrus fruits in the history of citriculture, with the rights of its breeder and therefore of its licensees, recognized in 10 countries (USA, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Uruguay, Peru, Israel, Ecuador, Spain and now South Africa). In the other main producer and exporter countries (Egypt, Morocco, China, Brazil, Turkey or Paraguay), the process is now at an advanced state.
