Florida’s citrus volume for the coming season will be down significantly from last year, but grower-shippers say there still we be some good-quality fruit coming out of the state.
Florida’s 2022-23 citrus volume was forecast to be down about 32% from last year even before the hurricane hit. A freeze early this year affected bloom and fruit set, and citrus greening disease continued to cause fruit drop.
USDA’s October Florida citrus forecast for the season projected 28 million boxes of Florida oranges (down from 41 million last season), 2 million boxes of grapefruit (down from 3.3 million) and 700,000 boxes of specialty citrus (down from 750,000).
The October forecast did not take into account the effects of Hurricane Ian, which will be factored into the next forecast Dec. 9.
Florida citrus grower-shippers who weren’t seriously affected by Hurricane Ian expect to have a productive season this year, even as they deal with the challenges of inflation and ever-rising prices.
“We still have plenty of fruit for the season,” said Doug Feek, partner and president at DLF International, Fort Pierce, Fla.
DLF grows fruit in the Indian River district and has groves on the ridge up and down the center of the state.
“We had a little bit of grapefruit blow off the tree, but overall, we’re sound and packing fruit,” he said.
Any reduction in fruit supply will be felt by processors, not fresh-market or even fresh-squeezed juice suppliers, Feek said. That’s because growers are paid more for their fresh-market fruit, he said.
DLF started harvesting in mid-September, as usual, and reports good quality. “The sugar levels are up, the ratios are good, juice content is good,” Feek said.
Picking slowed during the hurricane and the rains, which hit in late September, but returned to normal quickly.
DLF kicks off the season with grapefruit and early oranges, navels and tangerines and finishes with valencias. The company also grows honeybells.
“We pack probably 30% of our oranges prior to December, and 70% of our oranges January through June,” Feek said.
Riverfront Packing in Vero Beach on Florida’s east coast also was very lucky during the hurricane, said President Dan Richey. “We got the fringe of it,” he said. “Overall, I would say we lost 10% of our crop.”
Riverfront Packing started harvesting lemons for juice the week of Oct. 10 and started harvesting grapefruit Oct. 20. “The external quality is excellent, as it was last year,” Richey said. “I just wish we had more of it.” Brix levels were a half to a full point higher than last season, he said.
The company will start harvesting its own juice oranges in early January and may start packing other growers’ oranges in November, he said,
Riverfront Packing also does custom packing of minneola tangelos for the Harry & David gift pack program in late December or early January.
Richey expected the company’s volume to be down 10% this year, but not due to the storm.
“We’re in the process of replanting 1,500 acres of grapefruit,” he said, and it will take a couple of years before the new trees come into production.
The company also has made a few changes to fight citrus greening, such as adding soil enrichment with natural ground cover crops, cutting back inputs and using natural predators like lady bugs rather than chemical controls to fight pests.
Princeton, Fla.-based New Limeco no longer grows citrus in Florida, but the company imports limes year-round from Colombia, Honduras and Mexico, said general manager Eddie Caram.
Fortunately, Hurricane Ian did not affect New Limeco’s business.
Mexico and Honduras experienced a very hot, dry summer in the lime-growing areas, Caram said, but Colombia was experiencing heavy rains for several weeks in October.
Fruit quality looked good in mid-October, Caram said, and sizing generally was good.
“Lime sizes are pretty consistent,” he said, however, availability of large sizes sometimes can be affected when new crops are starting.
Caram expected New Limeco’s volume to grow as the company works with its grower to meet customer demand. “We just invested in a bagging machine to increase our productivity,” he said.
But even companies with strong citrus programs were having to cope with rising costs.
Growers were paying double last year’s price for fertilizer and seeing increases on spray chemicals, wax, cardboard, insurance and labor, just to name a few examples, Feek said. “We’re trying to pass on what we can, but we’ve had to absorb a lot of it,” he said. “We hope as we get into this that the margins will be there to help us cover these costs.”
Rising prices on things like fertilizer, fuel and herbicides have “increased our costs dramatically,” Richey said.
“We’re going to push some of that forward in pricing,” he said, “but it’s going to be a challenge to do so in this economic environment we are in right now.”
Increased costs for growers, including factors like labor, cartons, transportation and fertilizer, will result in increased costs for buyers of offshore fruit as well as Florida-grown product, Caram added.
