In Wagga on Thursday a project conducted by NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) brought the fruit to the people.

At a time when many were sitting down to participate in Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea, an initiative of  Cancer Council, others were tucking into locally-grown citrus.

Dr Tahir Khurshid is a research physiologist with NSW DPI in Dareton and was at the coalface of the sensory work in the Riverina. 

As a side note he explained that one particular orange that was being scrutinised could be traced to an orchard at Mildura. It was an orchard that he knew. And he also understood the background of how the variety came to be. 

He explained that the oranges had been farmed by mutation or by chance. This ultimately resulted in the development of an early-maturing navelina orange.

And if reports by the “taste testers” were to be a gauge it was emerging as one of the early favourites during the work on Thursday. 

“The taste is very good and the tree characteristic is quite different … the tree has different leaves and characteristics to normal naval trees,” he explained. He also said the variety was good for capturing demand from early markets. 

In outlining the sensory work he said different irrigation treatments were applied to the various trees where the oranges were picked. “The objective is to enhance the internal sugar level and to test the levels in the oranges that had less water,” he said. 

Part of the aim was to use less water and at the same time enhance the quality of citrus for Asian export markets. 

Dr Khurshid said the Wagga sensory work had attracted about 100 people to do the testing.

“They are testing fruit for sugars and sweetness, acid and the external experience,” he said. 

“This is all about consumer perception ...do they like the food and what is their opinion.”