Marks & Spencer has crossed the rope with its new citrus offer - the Satsumo.
The new satsuma variety, supplied by Cambridgeshire-based business MMUK, weighs in at 350g and has an average circumference of 30cm. Satsumas are normally around 68mm in circumference and weighs less that 60g.
The Satsumo is to hit stores on Saturday priced at £1.99 oer kilo.
The fruit is of Japanese origin and has been produced by crossing a Japanese Kiyomi - which is a satsuma crossed with an orange and a Ponkan, which is a large Chinese mandarin.
It has a distinctive nip in the top of the fruit to make it easy to peel and eat and has a sweeter flavour than a satsuma and a clementine.
M&S has developed an obsession with size in fruit over the last two years with baby pears, tiny tangerines, biggest cherries and baby lemons all arriving in store over the period.
M&S citrus buyer Matt Pudney said: “We’ve scoured the globe with our growers to find new fruits for our customers to enjoy. We introduced the tiny tangerine from China last year and it was a great success so now we have gone bigger and better - the Satsumo is the largest Satsuma on the high street and we think it will really wow our customers.”
He added: “We discovered that a Japanese Kiyomi, a Satsuma crossed with an orange, and a Ponkan, a large Chinese mandarin had been cross pollinated and we knew it would make one of the sweetest tasting citrus fruits on the high-street.
Pudney said “tasting is believing” of the high quality, sweet fruit. M&S sells more than 58 million satsumas a year.
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