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Fresh Produce

Albert Heijn Ready For St. Nicholas Tangerine Rush

By Publications Checkout
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Albert Heijn Ready For St. Nicholas Tangerine Rush

Dutch retailer Albert Heijn has predicted it will sell around 18 million tangerines during the week of 5 December, St. Nicholas' birthday in The Netherlands.

The link between tangerines and St. Nicholas is thought to have started with the tale of a poor man and his three beautiful daughters, who couldn’t marry for want of a dowry. When St. Nicholas learned of their plight, he gave the girls gold coins so they could get married and have a prosperous life.

For centuries the Saint kept sharing his wealth with children on his birthday, traditionally giving them 'gold nuggets' in the form of nugget-shaped spiced cookies, called ‘pepernoten' (peppernuts).

But in the early 1800s, the first imported, expensive ‘apples of orange’ from Spain might have provided a more exclusive gold substitute. And perhaps this ‘Spanish gold’ provided a reason for the legend to relocate St. Nicholas from his hometown of Myra (in Turkey) to Madrid.

Albert Heijn is ready for the rush - the retailer has been importing tangerines from the same Spanish supplier, Martinavarro, since the 1960s and currently offers eight varieties of the fruit.

© 2016 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Martha Sparrius. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.

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