UF professor’s hybrid fruit aims to hit supermarket shelves

A successful crossbreed of two citrus fruits has left a sweet taste of accomplishment in the mouths of its inventors.

The Sugar Belle is the first crossbred citrus variety that UF is releasing to the public. Bred in late October, the fruit is part Clementine - a small mandarin - and part Minneola - a cross between a grapefruit and tangerine.

Fred Gmitter, the fruit's breeder and UF professor of Citrus Genetics and Breeding, said the fruit is a vibrant red-orange color.

It thrives in the Florida climate and is ripe from November to January.

The fruit has been in the works for several years on the premises of the UF Citrus Research and Education Center in Lake Alfred, the biggest off-campus research center in UF's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.

With the fruit successfully crossbred and grown, focus has turned to getting the product recognized in the retail market.

The fruit has 40 to 60 percent more vitamin C than its rival, the tangerine.

It also possesses carotenoid, the compound that makes carrots orange, and according to medical research, improves heart health and cancer protection.

The Sugar Belle is also resistant to the alternaria fungus, which usually attacks the Minneola fruit, creating black spots on the leaves and fruit from a lack of photosynthesis and taints the fruit.

There are five growers across the state of Florida in the process of receiving their license to grow the fruit, said Peter Chaires, executive director of New Varieties Development and Management Corp.

The whole process of getting Sugar Belles to a full-fledged seasonal fruit will take about three to four years, Chaires said, which is the time needed to license and grow trees.

Gmitter said 70 percent of the Sugar Belle's profits will go back into the research program, 20 percent will go to the inventors as compensation for creating the fruit and 10 percent will go to the Florida Foundation Seed Producers Inc., a non-profit organization that helps with the crossbreeding process.