FAQs

Sumo Citrus is available from January through April every year.

Sumo Citrus is only grown in the San Joaquin Valley of California and with partner growers in Australia.

Sumo Citrus is an enormously delicious healthy snack. Its size along with its incredible sweetness makes it a unique fruit. It’s also seedless and easy to peel. Sumo Citrus has a distinct Top Knot^TM.

Sumo Citrus is easy to love but is the most difficult citrus to grow! It takes four years of constant love and care before a Sumo Citrus tree produces any fruit. Despite its rugged appearance, this delicate fruit requires far more expertise and gentle handling than any other piece of citrus. Each tree is carefully groomed by hand every year and then hand-picked and hand-packed. Even the trailers used to transport Sumo Citrus are designed to give it a smooth (vs. bumpy) ride.

Sumo Citrus is a non-GMO fruit verified by the non-GMO Project. Now, you might be thinking, “How is Sumo Citrus considered non-GMO if this fruit is seedless? It must have been genetically modified in a lab to be seedless.” The truth is that seedless fruit has been around for many years but that doesn’t mean it was modified in a laboratory. It happens naturally, thanks to Mother Nature.

In our case, a seedless Sumo Citrus was produced by hand crossing the Kiyomi Tangor with the Ponkan Mandarin. The pollen from Ponkan was gently brushed into the flowers of the Kiyomi. The seeds produced from this hand pollination in 1972 resulted in the Shiranuhi which was carefully imported to California in 1998 and the first orchards of Sumo Citrus® were planted by our friendly farmers in 2008.

Not all Sumo Citrus are truly seedless, but our farmers work hard to avoid seeded fruit. Seeds can grow thanks to our busy California bees that help form the seeds naturally when they cross-pollinate a regular mandarin blossom with a Sumo Citrus tree blossom. Who knew!?

Sumo Citrus comes off the tree only when it is perfectly ripe. While the size may vary thanks to mother nature, the flavor will be consistent thanks to our facility where we screen every piece of fruit for flavor (measuring sugar and acid levels). If the flavor isn’t there, it doesn’t make it to the store!

This unique and delicate fruit may demonstrate the following slight variations, which do not affect the quality or flavor in any way:

• Slight blemishes like discoloration, scarring or spotting.
• Shape variations from a large to small Top Knot. In some cases when the fruit is small, the Top Knot is barely noticeable.
• Peel varies from coarse to smooth.
• Loose-fitting rind or soft texture. Hint: the looser the rind, the easier they are to peel.

Sumo Citrus love to be stored at cooler temperatures with good air circulation.

It is possible that you may find a seed or two in your usually seedless Sumo Citrus. While our growers work very hard to avoid seeds, they can form naturally in some pieces of fruit when a bee cross-pollinates a regular mandarin blossom with a Sumo Citrus tree blossom. And it’s tough to get mad at the bees.

#Serving Size: 1 Sumo Citrus# (235g)

* The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a serving of food contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.