New Israeli sweet grapefruit forecast to “significantly increase consumption” of the fruit.
A team of scientists at the Agricultural Research Organization's Volcani Centre has developed a sweet grapefruit variety, after 10 years of research conducted at the Centre's Institute of Horticulture.
The new grapefruit variety, a hybrid of pomelo and mandarin, which has a sugar content of nearly 17 per cent, has stirred much interest among citrus growers worldwide, in view of the decline of home consumption of the standard grapefruit, expressing hope that the sweet grapefruit will promote consumption.
The new variety will be introduced at the forthcoming Agro-Mashov Agricultural Exhibition, to be held in Tel Aviv on March 10-11, together with another "citrus breakthrough" - new species of seedless pomelo and of seedless easy peelers developed at The Volcani Centre, and new species of exotic fruits, developed at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev's Institute of Applied Research.
Mr Haim Alush, general manager of the Agro-Mashov Agricultural Exhibition, said that this year's fair will focus on the Israeli scientific achievements in developing new varieties of fruits and vegetables, "some of which are slated to appear on the local and foreign markets in the near future." He added that the new sweet grapefruit variety "has the potential to significantly increase the consumption of grapefruits, adding revenues to Israeli growers as well as receiving royalties from granting licenses to growers worldwide."
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