Variety comparison
Clementine or navel orange: what changes on the order
Clemenules is a clementine and the Navelina is an orange, and the citrus marketing standard sizes the two on different scales. The same code number on a clementine line and on a navel line stands for a different diameter. Keep them as separate products on the order, each with its own window and its own use.
Side by side
| What you are comparing | Clementina Clemenules | Navelina |
|---|---|---|
| Species | Citrus x clementina | Citrus x sinensis |
| Size codes we pack | 3, 4 | 3, 4, 5 |
| Size codes in the range | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 | 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
| Picked in this area | November – January | October – March |
| Pips | Seedless | Seedless |
| Sold for | Table | Table / Juice |
Which one to order, and when
You are filling an easy peeler line
Clemenules
It is the only clementine we grow, it comes apart in the fingers, and the datasheet lists it for table use alone. Buy it for the piece count, and put the clementine size code next to it.
You need fruit for juice as well as for the shelf
Navelina
It is listed for both uses and its window is the longest of the four we grow, so a single cultivar name covers a stretch of the programme that no clementine of ours reaches.
Your customer takes both, on one order
Both, on separate lines
Two size scales and two last delivery weeks cannot share a line. Kept apart on the order they cost nothing extra; folded together they produce the substitution argument in February.
What this comparison does not settle
- The size row above is the one row here that does not compare. Clementine codes and orange codes come out of two different columns of the same annex, and our sizes page publishes the orange column alone.
- Sugar, acid and weeks of storage are unmeasured on both products, so nothing on this page separates them on eating quality. The descriptions of the fruit come from published cultivar datasheets and not from ours.
- This page sets one clementine against one navel. Which navel, and for which delivery week, is a different decision, and the comparison of the three navels is where it gets answered.
Same code, different fruit
Look down the two size rows and the numbers seem to line up. They do not. The citrus marketing standard sizes clementines on one scale and oranges on another, inside the same annex, and both scales run over the same digits. A code 4 clementine and a code 4 navel are two fruits of different diameter that happen to share a number, and the table above is the only place on this site where the two scales sit side by side.
The cost of that lands on the order rather than on the page. A purchase line asking for size 4 without naming the product stays ambiguous until somebody opens a pallet, and by then the fruit has travelled. Write the product and the code together on every line. Our sizes page prints the orange column of the standard, so the clementine codes in the table above have to be read against the column for satsumas, clementines and mandarins in the same annex.
One order, two last delivery weeks
The clementine window opens within a fortnight of the Navelina and closes more than a month earlier. Anyone running both products on a single programme therefore holds two end dates. An instruction to supply through to the end of the season resolves differently depending on which line it lands on: the oranges keep going, and the clementines have already finished.
No cultivar swap repairs that, because the clementine that would cover February is somebody else's. Among the four varieties we grow, the later weeks belong to the navels, and the harvest calendar shows where each window sits against the others. If clementines have to reach the spring in your programme, that part of it is a separate sourcing question, and it is cheaper to open in September than in January.
What each product is sold to do
The datasheet lists Clemenules for table use and the Navelina for table and juice. That difference describes the job each fruit is bought to do. One is peeled by hand and eaten by the piece; the other is cut, squeezed or weighed out. A clementine that arrives on the shelf and will not come apart in the fingers has failed at the one thing it was bought for.
Neither column carries a measured sugar or acid figure, and on fruit sold for eating quality that is the row a buyer wants most. Those figures are pending on our own fruit, and the datasheets say so rather than filling the gap. Ask for them before you commit a listing, and ask at the same time what count per package your customer expects, because clementines move by the piece and oranges by weight.
The other decisions a buyer makes before ordering
Talk to the grower
Tell us the variety, the sizes and the delivery week you need. You get a delivered price and what we can commit to in writing, from the person who picks the fruit.
The grower handles enquiries. Response times are still to be confirmed.