Where Have All the Japanese Oranges Gone?

The following is my original post, find the update below: When last year a blind taste test confirmed that Japanese Mandarin oranges were far superior to Chinese Mandarin oranges, I took note and vowed to only eat the best this year. Kind of like a Christmas gift to myself. So it has been with great dismay that this year that "the best" seems noticeably absent from Canadian shelves. Why? Google was amazingly useless, so I called grocery store after grocery store to find out.

One produce manager of a major chain told me off the record that a large shipment of Japanese mandarins had been refused at the Vancouver Port due to quality control and that across Canada, that grocery store would not be selling them this season. He mentioned that the Chinese mandarins had suffered a shortened growing season due to tsunamis, but he wasn't quite sure what the issue was with the Japanese ones.

It doesn't look like we'll be seeing a Japanese Mandarin anytime soon (let me know if you somehow find some in your city!), but a produce manager at a different chain told me to try the Moroccan clementines, so that's what I did. And if you're also on the lookout for the tastiest orange of the season, maybe you should, too. 

2021/2022 SEASON UPDATE: It is still unlikely you will see Japanese Mandarin oranges in your local stores… unless you live in Japan. Not only has their orange production decreased (from 928K tons in 2011 to 747K tons in 2019) but it seems labour shortages may have also contributed to a massive price increase. I spoke with someone in the produce department at Co-Op that said last year, they were only able to bring in 15 boxes, total. Sobey’s said they haven’t carried them in years now, And it was a Save-On Foods produce representative that told me the fact is, Japanese oranges have become cost-prohibitive. The grocery store did have an opportunity to buy them this year, apparently, but they were so ridiculously high-priced at cost alone that it made no sense to bring them in and mark them up even further. What does this mean for the future of Japanese oranges in Canadian grocery stores? Well, I’m still pulling for a Christmas miracle... next year.

Xo