LIBRO-CONGRESO-CITRUS

Drip irrigation introduced in the 80’s allowed cultivation in hilly and relatively poor soils, thus allowing an
important expansion of citrus to new areas. The availability of healthy plants, together with important
improvements of cultural practices produced an increase in yields and fruit quality.
Today Spain has about 330.000 hectares of citrus, with an average production of 6.5 million tones/year, with
sweet oranges representing 48%, mandarins 35% and lemons 16%, although the tendency in new plantings
is to reduce sweet oranges and increase mandarins, according to the preferences of consumers. Spain is the
first exporting country of fresh fruit, with more than 50% of its production being commercialized abroad.
About 20% of the production is consumed in the internal market also as fresh fruit, 18% is processed and the
rest is waste. Citrus plantings are mainly located along the Mediterranean coast in the provinces of Tarragona,
Castellón, Valencia, Murcia, Almeria and Málaga, in the Guadalquivir river valley in the provinces of Córdoba
and Sevilla and in the Atlantic coast in the province of Huelva.
Since the Spanish citrus industry has been completely renewed in the last 30 years with healthy certified
nursery trees, graft and vector transmitted diseases do not pose significant problems any longer. Today, the
only disease problem is caused by Alternaria alternata, which produces significant damage in susceptible
mandarin varieties like Fortune that is being replaced by others.
Cultivars have always been a key aspect of the Spanish citrus industry due to the need to adapt production
to the international market demands. The competitiveness is dramatically increasing in citrus international
markets and economic survival of the Spanish citrus industry highly depends on availability of new improved
cultivars that meet the increasing market demand for higher quality fruits. The main varieties selected in Spain
or imported through the Quarantine Station are available for commercial propagation. However, there is still
an important demand for new late maturing seedless mandarin cultivars. Recently two triploid cultivars with
these characteristics, ‘Garbí’ and ‘Safor’, have been released and are being widely accepted by the growers.
Without significant technical constraints, the Spanish citrus industry faces several new problems. Production
cost is very high compared to those of direct competitors’ countries, mainly due to high labor costs but also
to the small size of plantings in traditional citrus areas. The amount of different fruits reaching the markets
in some periods is higher than the demand and this reduces the price, drastically diminishing benefits of the
growers. To overcome this situation it is very important to increase research activities to obtain new products
of higher quality at lower costs.
PC02
Citrus and health
Gary Williamson
School of Food Science and Nutrition. University of Leeds. Leeds, United Kingdom
Although diet clearly affects health and disease risk in many ways, the beneficial effects of fruit and vegetable
consumption is now a well established concept. The effect of individual components of the diet on health
is difficult to entangle, since the diet consists of many components and disease progression is a biologically
and biochemically complex process. In general, citrus fruit contributes to the intake of “5-a-day”. Specifically
oranges and other citrus fruits contain several components which may affect health in a beneficial way. Of
these, vitamin C, carotenoids and polyphenols have received the most intensive research efforts in recent
years. These components are retained during gentle processing of citrus fruits into juice. Hesperidin and
naringenin are the most abundant polyphenols, and are found at very high levels in oranges and grapefruit
respectively, and are unique to citrus fruits. Orange juice can contain hundreds of milligrams per portion
of hesperidin, and this intake can make a major contribution to the overall dietary intake of polyphenols
in many countries. Hesperidin consumption helps preserve vascular function and reduces blood pressure
in overweight individuals, and reduces endothelial dysfunction. Hesperidin is absorbed in the colon and is
dependent upon the presence of colonic microflora. Vitamin C performs several functions in the body, is
essential for prevention of scurvy and may have additional health benefits related to antioxidant action. The
lipid-soluble carotenoids also have certain antioxidant health benefits and are beneficial for cardiovascular
function. These different components from citrus fruits provide benefits to health which can help to reduce
the risk of chronic disease and maintain the general healthiness of the population in many countries.
4 - VALENCIA CONFERENCE CENTER, 18th-23rd NOVEMBER 2012