Under this species, there are varieties of released citrus plants in Bhutan, such as mandarin, sweet orange, lime, lemon, pomelo, kumquat, and grapefruit.

As we know among the export of commodities of horticulture fruits, mandarin, popularly known as “oranges” is the leading fruit crop in Bhutan. Since more than a decade ago, the population of mandarin locals has been declining in Bhutan, but the demand has been up surging both in domestic, national, and international markets. The decline of citrus species, particularly the mandarin local is due to the outbreak of citrus greening disease (viral disease) caused by the vector (insect pest) named citrus psyllid. This has led to the insufficiency of quality saplings and the restriction of the horticulture sector, Department of Agriculture, MoAF to the private growers.

Since a few years ago, the government-run National Seed Center at Tashiyangtse, Bhutan is the only distributor of citrus saplings to the entire nation, thus known to be not meeting the demand of citrus enthusiasts in the country. Owing to this problem, the BHUTAN SEEDLINGS had researched thoroughly and sorted out the solution to curb this problem by establishing a technically sound and standard structure.  Recently, we got approval from the Department of Agriculture for initiating the production of citrus fruit seedlings accordingly to the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) developed by the citrus and horticulture experts of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forest, for the nursery growers of Bhutan.

After completion of this specific project, it will be one of the first ever-private nurseries for citrus sapling production structures in Nobgang village, Talog Gewog, Punakha, and Bhutan. This is to revive the declining citrus orchard and promote citrus farming for enhancing the socio-economic life of the Bhutanese farmers and improvement of the country’s economy.