The research center CREA is testing new varieties to obtain red pulp mandarins
A research program for obtaining new varieties of mandarins with red pulp and without seeds, meeting the tastes of the consumer, has been launched by CREA. With its Center for Olive, Fruit and Citrus Growing, it has already created five unique mandarins, Tacle, Mandared, Early Sicily, Sun Red and Red Sunset. This research center alone has developed more than a dozen red-fleshed oranges grown in Italy on about 40 thousand hectares. Over the past 15-20 years, the international interest in red-fleshed citrus fruits has increased because of their health benefits, said to ANSA the CREA researcher Marco Caruso. In China, for instance, the number of hectares cultivated with blood orange has increased from 7 thousand to 30 thousand in 12 years, by using exclusively varieties of Italian origin.