Del Monte are one of the largest canners of such fruit. Processing and CanningĬanned mandarins are closely regulated in terms of quality to avoid wrecking the market for this type of product. The growth in the export market for this particular fruit has increased but reached a plateau about 2015. In 2010, about 150,000 tonnes were exported from Spain to the USA. The fruit is a clean, bright orange and the Spanish fruit in particular has a stronger and deeper flavour than clementines grown in the USA. It has a sweet juicy pulp of similar consistency to a tangerine but with greater depth of flavour and no seeds which means it is easier to chew and digest. One of the related tangerines is the Huangyanbendizao tangerine. It is not the same fruit however as the Common Mandarin. It is a member of the mandarin family and is commonly listed as a mandarin when canned. It has the species name Citrus reticulata Blanco and is a cultivar. The fruit found its way to the USA in 1909.

The fruit was found in a garden in Algeria in the early twentieth century. It is probably the result of an accidental cross between the Havana mandarin and a bitter or sour orange. The fruit is also known as the Algerian Tangerine. The clementine is one of several citrus species of the mandarin variety.

Algerian tangerine clementine