​(Communicated by GPO/ Efraim Roseman)

The citrus industry epitomizes the history of Zionism, the development and the history of the State of Israel.  At the turn of the 20th century, the citrus branch was the backbone of the emergent Zionist reclamation.

Until the mid-1970s, Israel had a strong agricultural orientation. The country then made the transition to an industrial, hi-tech economy.  Agriculture was not abandoned, but was transformed along with the rest of the country.

The Volcani Center (ARO) development project, initiated in 1975, became a showcase for that transformation, producing abundant new varieties of citrus fruit. Perhaps its greatest success to date is the OR1 orange variety.  The tasty, seedless and easy to peal "OR" is in very high demand in many foreign markets, including Europe.

Israel is a 70 year-old country that has prided itself on its oranges and citrus for well over a century. And now the OR - short for Orange, but also meaning "light" in Hebrew - has now become the favorite in the Start-Up/Jaffa Nation.