Redbelly Citrus: Mancini cousins from Griffith take a bite out of citrus market

GROWING premium crimson red oranges is in the blood of the Mancini family, writes LINDSAY HAYES.

Fruit tingle: Vito Mancini of Redbelly Citrus in his orchard north of Griffith in NSW. Picture: LINDSAY HAYES

CITRUS grower Vito Mancini’s boyhood encounter with a “mysterious orange” has spawned a thriving farm business with exciting prospects.

The orange was a blood orange, named for the variety’s crimson-red flesh growing on a tree in his grandfather’s back yard.

Vito said his grandfather told him it was the fruit of Sicily and the best orange that could be grown for taste and for health.

Today, the 36-year-old third generation citrus grower in Australia is carrying on the family’s long tradition of farming in partnership with his cousins Anthony and Leonard.

Trading as Redbelly Citrus, the Mancinis produce upwards of 700 tonnes of blood oranges for the export and domestic markets on two farms north of Griffith in the NSW Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area.

They have set the bar high with today’s production representing a 14-fold increase on their inaugural harvest of 50 tonnes in 2010.

The output from three contracted growers takes the total annual production to nearly 1400 tonnes, making RedBelly Citrus one of the biggest producers in the southern hemisphere.

This year’s harvest is just weeks away.

In preparation for their market debut the Mancinis recently took fruit to promote blood oranges at the Harris Farm Markets in Sydney.

“We acted as commodity traders, showed consumers how to use blood oranges and where to source them,” Vito said.

“In 2010 we invested quite heavily in promotions in the traditional media, social media and through TV shows like MasterChef.”

BLOOD BROTHERS

THE business was conceived early in 2000 when the cousins got together to explore a way to enter agriculture.

Vito said with big corporations buying land for primary production, it was clear the small family farms could not remain profitable in their current form.

“More than ever we realised we had be to price-setters, not price-takers,” he said.

“We could never be a big player with conventional citrus so we looked for something different to produce, something novel and with a niche market.”

The Mancinis looked outside the square and found the answer in blood oranges. Other possibilities were considered and dismissed, including almonds, pomegranates and figs. “One thing I remembered was that my grandfather always had blood oranges on his tree.” Vito said.

The Mancinis were assisted by the NSW Department of Primary Industries which mapped Australia’s climate to that of Catania in Sicily where the variety grew so well.

“We have a warm climate during the fruit’s maturity from April to June, really warm days and cool nights,” Vito said.

“We started with nothing, but we had our dads behind us and got a bank loan to purchase two 40ha blocks north of Griffith.”

The set-up costs were about $1 million for one farm.

“We bought our root stock from Auscitrus Mildura and put in 32,000 blood orange trees of the cleopatra, solange and trifoliate varieties establishing the orchards in 2005 The trees cost about 50¢ each.”

MOUND ABOUT

THE trees are grown on mounds in accordance with the latest planting techniques and drip-irrigated using state-of-the-art technology at a flow rate of 0.95 litres a minute. The farms have storage dams and all water is recycled.

The Mancinis hold a 175-megalitre high security water entitlement from Murrumbidgee Irrigation and, as a hedge against fluctuating allocations, purchased a small quantity of extra high security water.

Every second row of trees is hedged for harvest access and the rows are closer together than other citrus to provide more trees and maximise production. Vito said if planted conventionally, it would take 121ha to grow the trees planted on 80ha in the Redbelly Citrus orchards.

More trees have been added and new varieties introduced.

“We have four rows of tarocca, an Italian variety with a flavour to die for, from tree stock imported to Australia and some arnold blood oranges grafted onto trees. It is a No.1 blood orange variety with a short window of opportunity for an early mid to late harvest,” Vito said.

“Our production is one-third for export, one-third for domestic and one-third for juice.”

The Mancinis export direct to Korea and to the US through distributors.

“We are making sure we choose our trading partners carefully. We are hoping to export to China as well.”

They engage local carriers to transport the fruit, a harvest contractor to supply backpackers for the packing house and the harvest, and a PR company to extol the culinary and medicinal benefits of the blood orange.

TASTE SENSATION

VITO said the orange’s distinctive flavour made it ideal for use in desserts and cocktails and in a variety of dishes, the recipes for which are posted on the Redbelly website. His favourite blood orange delight is chocolate-dipped wedges.

The blood orange has been shown to have a number of health benefits due to antho-
cyanins – responsible for the red pigment – which produce antioxidants, found to be far more powerful than vitamin C.

Vito believes a large part of their business success is due to the pooling of skills in the three-way partnership.

Tech-savvy and with an IT degree, he handles technical matters and manages the packing shed, Leonard, a Sydney-based lawyer, attends to marketing and PR and Anthony applies his citrus experience to management of both farms.

All three are Redbelly Citrus directors and share a passion for their product which they say is grown “with heart and soul”. “The last 12 months has brought more growth. We are now looking at what is the next challenge,” Vito said. “The business is at a point where we will focus more on business management and look at what other fruit we can get out to consumers.”

Proud of their achievements to date, the Mancinis are not resting on their laurels. They have set their sights on producing a blood orange of superior quality to that of the Italian blood orange grown by their forebears.