The Jaffa orange (Arabic: ‏برتقال يافا), also known by their Arabic name, Shamouti orange, is an orange variety with few seeds and a tough skin that makes it particularly suitable for export. Developed by Arab farmers in the mid-19th century, the variety takes its name from the city of Jaffa where it was first produced for export. The orange was the primary citrus export for the city. It is, along with the navel and bitter orange, one of three main varieties of the fruit grown in the Mediterranean, Southern Europe, and the Middle East. The Jaffa is cultivated in Cyprus, Iraq, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Turkey. Characteristics Jaffa oranges, also known as shamouti, are practically seedless, with a flavour that has been described as "excellent" and "sweet and fine". The two other main orange varieties cultivated in the region are the navel orange and the bitter orange; the latter is grown in Iran for its peel. The Jaffa orange is distinguished by its oval shape and thick peel, which is deep orange in colour and normally very easy to remove from the fruit. Its tough skin makes it "especially suitable for export". As it produces very little juice and has a tendency towards delayed bitterness, it is unsuitable for juice production, although it does store well. These oranges are very cold-tolerant, allowing them to grow outside of the subtropical regions normally associated with growing oranges. Jaffa oranges are susceptible to Alternaria, a type of fungus, and are prone to alternate bearing. History Located at the crossroads between Africa, western Asia, and Europe, Palestine produced a number of commodities for export via imperial and global distribution networks throughout the late Turkish period (1200–1900 CE). Among these were Nabulsi soap, sugar, barley, oranges, and cotton. Though cotton left its mark throughout the region, the only commodity that remains a symbol of production in Palestine is the Jaffa orange. The Jaffa orange was a new variety developed by Arab farmers after emerging in the mid-19th century as a mutation on a tree of the 'Baladi' variety near the city of Jaffa. While the sour orange (C. aurantium) was brought westward from China and India by local traders, who may have introduced it to Sicily and Spain, the Jaffa orange was developed from the sweet orange (C. sinensis) which was brought from China to the Mediterranean region by Portuguese explorer Vasco da