MBA Aspirants are expected to know markets beyond Brands. This helps them to understand different businesses concerned with our daily life. Today, you will read on Kinnow orange story
All of us are aware of oranges and their benefits, but not many are aware of the kinnow fruit, which is a type of citrus fruit cultivated mainly in the Punjab province of Pakistan. And Pakistan is the largest kinnow producing country in the world. 95% of the citrus fruits produced in Pakistan come from the Punjab province, and out of these, 70% are kinnow mandarin fruits.
Although the kinnow fruit looks similar to the orange, there are a number of differences through which people can differentiate the two fruits. The kinnow fruit is a hybrid of two cultivars – Citrus nobilis, also known as the “King” and Citrus deliciosa, also known as the “Willow Leaf”. And it was developed by H.B. Frost at the Citrus Research Centre, University of California.
Commercial cultivation of the kinnow fruit began in 1935 and today, kinnow farms occupy a major part of the Punjab region, which has been set aside for the cultivation of fruit crops. Apart from Punjab, the kinnow fruit is also grown in Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Jammu and Kashmir.
The kinnow fruit is round, large, and has golden-orange skin, with a maximum of 25 seeds. The skin of the kinnow can be easily peeled and the fruit itself has high juice content, which is rich in vitamin C. These are some of the benefits of the kinnow fruit, which makes it a fruit of high export value. The kinnow tree is highly productive, with the ability to bear as many as 1,000 fruits.
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Compared to the orange, the kinnow fruit is vulnerable to damage and bruises during handling because of its loose skin. As such, the price of the kinnow fruit is lower than that of the orange.
Another reason why the kinnow fruit is cheaper than the orange is because of the former’s seediness, which annoys consumers. An orange has less number of seeds than the kinnow fruit, which is bliss for consumers, and consumers are willing to pay a higher price for the comfort offered by oranges.
The kinnow fruit, unlike the orange, is difficult to be made into juice. This is because the kinnow fruit contains an excessive number of seeds and even the most efficient processing machines are unable to extract juice from highly seeded fruits.
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As such, some seeds get crushed and become part of the pulp and juice, which is an added headache for vendors because they would have to spend more money in de-bittering the juice. This will increase the cost of the product and eventually make it less profitable. This is the reason why the kinnow fruit, unlike the orange, is only sold in the form of a fruit and not processed further.
The kinnow orange is mainly exported to developing countries, where there is a huge demand for cheap fruits. In the developed countries, there is a demand for seedless kinnow orange, for which research is ongoing. If Pakistan manages to create the seedless kinnow orange, the export value of the fruit can increase significantly.