Trade term
Albedo, the rind you buy inside the diameter
Albedo is the white layer between the coloured skin and the segments. It carries no juice and it still occupies part of the diameter a size code measures, so two fruits at the same code hold different amounts of flesh. It is also the tissue that fails when a rind creases or a clementine puffs.
The figures
| Where it sits | Between the coloured flavedo and the segment membranes |
|---|---|
| Navel rind thickness | 3.5-4.5 mm on Navelina, 3.5-4.0 mm on Navel Lane Late (IVIA) |
| Clementine rind thickness | 2-2.5 mm on Clemenules (IVIA) |
| Disorders that start here | Creasing, filed in the literature as albedo breakdown, and puffing |
| Juice yield on our fruit | Not measured. No field for it on the variety datasheets |
What it changes on an order
You buy by size code and sell by juice
A diameter band includes rind, and rind thickness is a cultivar trait rather than a grading decision. Two offers at the same code, one navel and one clementine, are not offering the same quantity of flesh, and no part of the size scale says so.
Your customer peels the fruit by hand
Thin rind is what a shopper means by easy to peel, and it is also what marks under a firm grip. A specification asking for effortless peeling and an unmarked rind is asking for a compromise somebody has to choose.
You are reading a claim about creasing or puffing
Both are albedo disorders and neither reaches the flesh. That puts the conversation with the packer and with the grading class, rather than with the carrier who moved the pallet.
What this note does not settle
- Rind thickness here is a cultivar range from published variety data. It is not a measurement of the fruit in a given week, from a given plot or in a given lot.
- Juice yield is absent from our datasheets and no figure is offered for it. Ask the grower what can be measured before a juicing programme depends on the answer.
- A thick rind is not a defect and the marketing standard does not grade it. It changes what the fruit suits, and that is a decision for your own process.
Source: IVIA, variety datasheets for citrus, UC Riverside Citrus Variety Collection, Clemenules, NSW Department of Primary Industries, Albedo breakdown research update, 2022
You buy it by diameter and you sell what is inside
Albedo is the white, spongy layer between the coloured skin and the segments, and it is living tissue rather than packaging: its pectins and cell walls keep changing while the fruit develops and again while it sits in store. It is also rind. A size code measures the outside of a fruit, and part of what it measures is this layer, which carries no juice and still occupies the diameter you paid for.
Published cultivar data puts the rind of a navel well above that of a clementine, so two fruits sharing a size code do not share the proportion of themselves that is flesh. For a juicing operation that difference lands directly on yield. For whole fruit it appears as handling: the thin-rinded clementine that comes apart in the fingers is the same fruit that arrives marked by a grip a navel would have ignored.
The layer that fails first
Albedo is where two familiar disorders begin, which is the strongest argument for knowing the word at all. Creasing is a collapse of albedo cells under the surface, and the research literature files it under albedo breakdown rather than under any name a buyer would recognise. Puffing is a rupture of the same tissue, with the segment membrane separating from the flesh and a gap opening behind the rind, which is why a puffed clementine feels hollow in the hand.
Neither disorder touches the flesh, and both decide what the fruit is worth. Ask for rind thickness when your process depends on it, and expect a cultivar characteristic in reply rather than a lot measurement: published variety data gives a range per cultivar, and what a particular week produced is a separate question. Juice yield appears nowhere on our datasheets, and putting a figure there would be putting a guess where a measurement belongs.
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.