This property does not apply to table-cells.
I am amazed. The property applies to all areas which generate
a reference area (see URL above). Table cells generate reference
areas:
The fo:table-cell formatting object generates one or more
normal reference-areas.
Well, it's probably one more spec contradiction, like recently
discovered block's width. Although the property definition says it "is
applied only on formatting objects that establish a reference-area",
spec does mention reference-orientation as property of
fo:simple-page-master, fo:region-body, fo:region-before,
fo:region-after, fo:region-start, fo:region-end, fo:block-container and
fo:inline-container only.