A recent EU ruling will force exporters and their retail customers to label their soft citrus more clearly in three categories – namely satsumas, clementines and mandarins.

The ruling came after EU officials clamped down on the labelling of Nadorcott mandarins as clementines, a move that initially caused some disruption with Spanish exports to the UK. Spanish products have now been given dispensation until the end of the European season, but the South Africans, and other southern hemisphere suppliers, will have to comply from the start of the season. Spanish authorities have issued a clarification of the legal requirements to comply with the EU Marketing Directive (Council Regulation EC 1234/2007 and Implementing Regulation 543/2011) which sets out marketing standards for citrus fruit and other products. Labels must accurately display either clementine, mandarin or satsuma, or the actual hybrid.

In accordance with the EU marketing standard for citrus fruit hybrids of mandarins – products such as Nadorcott – must be labelled either as the hybrid ‘Nadorcott’ or as mandarins, and cannot be labelled, packed or sold as either clementines or satsumas. Nadorcott mandarins out of South Africa are mostly sold under the label clementines or as ClemenGold, for which special quality standards have been agreed and which has become very popular with British consumers.

The problem is that most British retailers have only three soft citrus category lines, namely satsuma, clementine and mandarin. Clementine is by far a higher price category than mandarin and South African exporters fear that they will suffer a loss in price if Nadorcott cannot be sold under the clementine category and PLU anymore. South African sources have warned that the latest ruling may also harm the late mandarin category.

“The product ‘mandarin’ normally refers to pitted varieties which have the perception of a lower quality product in consumers’ minds. We all know that what has more recently been referred to as ‘late mandarins’ are completely different products from the old mandarins,” says one exporter. While this debate will have to be settled before the first South African shipments of Nadorcott, Mor and Orri in June, the South African citrus season is underway.

The UK's Department for International Development (DFID) has signed an agreement with FAO to donate £16 million ($25 million) to support an innovative new global partnership that will improve the agricultural statistics available to governments and farmers around the world.

The Global Strategy to Improve Agricultural and Rural Statistics builds capacity of developing countries to produce and use agricultural and rural statistics for more effective food security, sustainable agricultural and rural development policies and helps makes the information available to farmers when and where they need it.

The contribution covers the programme's first phase, from 2012 to 2016, and will support mainly African and Asian countries. The emphasis is on improving how governments organize and manage their statistical systems and on technical assistance and staff training in national statistics offices and ministries of agriculture.

Improved information and statistics enables governments to develop better agricultural policies for eradicating hunger and poverty and makes it easier to monitor changes taking place. However, many developing countries lack good statistical systems and collect data using costly, labour-intensive and time-consuming methods. Unreliable agricultural statistics and weak information hinder policy decision-making. This can lead to increased costs, weak policy design and reduced impacts from these policies. In order to address these and other problems, FAO leads the Global Strategy to Improve Agricultural and Rural Statistics programme, an international partnership for implementing the strategy, which was developed with the World Bank in consultation with national statistics organizations, ministries of agriculture and international agencies, and unanimously endorsed by the United Nations Statistical Commission. It will eventually operate in 90 developing countries in the first five years phase with a total budget of $82 million.