Big plans for seedless lemons in South Africa

Seedless lemons are slowly taking shelf space away from seeded lemons and drawing the attention of both consumers and chefs worldwide.

South African seedless lemon and branding specialist ClemenGold International has been effectively promoting seedless lemons in the country through premium retailer Woolworths, and across key international markets including China, Germany, and the UK.

In South Africa, Indigo Fruit Farming is the principal player when it comes to promoting seedless lemons – particularly through the LemonGold brand, part of the ‘Gold’ branding initiative which also includes the ClemenGold mandarin.

According to ClemenGold, these campaigns have already received high acclaim in the markets of the East.

“In our efforts to bolster this category from South Africa, we’ve introduced a fruit sticker, freely available for use by all seedless lemon producers, to prominently highlight the unique selling proposition of seedlessness at the point of sale,” said Adéle Ackermann, marketing manager at ClemenGold International.

The specially-designed yellow sticker, with a clear ‘No Seeds’ message, would draw the attention of the shopper, she said.

The initiative aimed to foster collaboration among all local producers, thereby positively influencing demand for South African seedless lemons.

”Ultimately, our objective is to convert lemon shelves worldwide to seedless lemons,” Ackermann noted.

The idea of focusing on the special qualities of South African lemons was also strongly promoted by, among others, South Africa’s largest lemon producer, Sundays River Citrus Company (SRCC) in the Eastern Cape.

“We are impressed with the steady strides made by seedless lemons which will bring new impetus to the lemon category,” said SRCC chief executive Hannes de Waal

“In South Africa we are all thinking of how to tell global consumers about the special qualities of seedless lemons because we have seen a rise in demand from some western retailers.

”The Gulf Nations are probably the nations that are the most enthusiastic user of high-quality lemons which are available at every meal,” explained de Waal.

The global lemon industry needed to learn from that and know that this extremely healthy product could indeed be present on every table at every meal, always, he added.

After some years of steep growth in citrus production, sources in the industry said it was time for a new focus on the lemon business.