“That number is expected to reach 90 million this year and in less than five years, shipments are expected to reach 140 million boxes,” said the company last Friday. Last season, Paramount and its partners packed and shipped 60 million boxes of Cuties.

But a $20-million marketing campaign for the Cuties brand of mandarin orange - a joint venture between Paramount Citrus, Sun Pacific and Fowler Packing - has the company thinking even bigger. Paramount, part of Roll Global, already had three packing facilities in California and Mexico that ship more than 200,000 tons of various citrus fruits throughout North America and the Pacific Rim. Delite Clementines are trademarked and marketed by Mulholland Citrus … descendants of the Mulholland who famously engineered the water supply for Los Angeles.) (Note: Darling Clementines, with a capital “D,” are grown in Spain, and trademarked and marketed by LGS Specialty Sales Ltd. And those darling, delightful Clementines were the main reason. Last Friday, on the very day Francophiles the world over were savoring their first sips of this year’s Beaujolais, Paramount Citrus, the largest integrated grower, shipper and packer of fresh citrus in the U.S., was uncorking what it called the world’s largest citrus packinghouse in its hometown of Delano, Calif. But only one of those fits in a stocking. The onset of the holiday season in mid-November brings two treats for the gourmand: the arrival of Beaujolais Nouveau and the harvest of clementine oranges. 'This new Cuties plant gives us a lot to be proud of, but it's not about being the biggest, it's about striving to be the best in the industry,' said Stewart Resnick, chairman and owner of Roll Global, parent company to Paramount Citrus.

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