Florida citrus growers battle through challenges

In Greek mythology, Zeus condemned King Sisyphus to roll an immense rock up a hill, only to have that rock roll down on Sisyphus when he was nearly at the top.

An outside observer could draw comparisons to Florida citrus growers, who have endured freezes, hurricanes and diseases, but still power forward each season to produce a crop despite the collective challenges.

In fact, industry leaders radiate optimism, though that outlook is necessarily colored by the weight of the challenges in the past and still ahead.

“In Florida, the citrus industry is not going away,” said longtime grower and industry leader George Hamner. “We’re still contracting, and it's [getting] a little scary with our infrastructure … but the people that are in the citrus industry right now are very dedicated growers, and I just don't see them giving up on this. I think you are going to see good citrus from Florida for years to come.”

Early indications point to a good Florida citrus crop in 2022, Hamner added, with reports of a good bloom in the spring.

“The weather has been a little dry,” he said earlier this year. “We’re getting rain again now, but we had a good bloom, so everything points to a good crop.”

The danger with huanglongbing (aka HLB, or citrus greening) is that fruit drop occurs later in the season, making predictions of the crop premature.

“Generally speaking, I think most people feel pretty good about the (2022-23) crop,” said Hamner, who was previously the president of Indian River Exchange Packers.

The company has shut down its packing house and is now merging its operations with Egan Fruit Packing LLC, Fellsmere, Fla. 

“Since about 2005, we've been in partnership with the Egan family,” he said. “We operated independently, but have been close allies, and so [now], we're going to be merging the rest of our operations into their operation next year or so.”

“We’re still condemned to the business,” he said with a laugh.

Beginnings

Hamner grew up with a multigeneration citrus family, but went to college and went to work outside the industry.

“I came home when my father had some health problems,” he said. “I joined the company in 1978 and I took over in 1985 from my father and grandfather.”

In his 40-plus years in the business, Hamner said the industry ran the gamut from the really good times to times of struggles. The 1980s were “rocking and rolling,” he said.

“That’s when the King Airs [jets] and the Hatteras [yachts] were flying around,” he said. “After that, we started rowing boats.”

The challenges of canker and HLB continue to take a toll, though.

“Sad to say, the industry is still contracting,” he said.

Hamner said his family still has about 1,500 acres of groves, and keeping those trees in production is an overarching goal, he said.

The CUPS, or Citrus Under Protective Screens, method of growing citrus is gaining a lot of attention, Hamner said. 

“It all looks really good, it is just expensive,” he said of the CUPS technology. Pricing and returns per acre will ultimately dictate whether growers can afford to undertake that technology. “It is just going to be how it plays out.”

Long term, Hamner is a proponent of the CRISPR/Cas9 gene-edited technology, which eventually could help introduce canker- and HLB-resistant citrus varieties

“I believe that we are getting closer and closer,” he said. Noting that the CRISPR is not considered genetically modified, Hamner said there are a couple of companies that are working to develop CRISPR-edited citrus varieties.

“I would like to say three to five years [before CRISPR varieties are available] and not 10,” he said. “If I had to bet, that’s my bet.”

While there is no silver bullet cure now or on the horizon, he believes CRISPR may be as close to that as the industry will get if trees can be modified for resistance to HLB and canker.

20/20 hindsight

Hindsight being 20/20, the decision by regulators to expand the canker eradication perimeter to 1,900 feet in 2000 was a big mistake, Hamner said. 

Not only failing to eradicate canker, the move also destroyed tens of thousands of acres and weakened the industry just as it came face to face with the even more dire threat of HLB.

“With canker, we overreacted terribly,” Hamner said. “Having learned what we know now, we probably could have done a whole lot less destruction of the industry and learned to live with canker much quicker, but we were panicked over our grandfathers’ and forefathers’ fear of canker, so we probably overreacted.”

When it came to citrus greening, Hamner said the industry really didn’t understand the disease.

“I'm not sure what else we would have done on greening, except now that we know, what we've learned, is that nutritional [products] are things that we can do that are keeping our trees sustainable,” he said. “I wish we'd have gotten there sooner; we may have all been probably better for it.”

The industry had a huge learning curve with citrus greening, related to tree care, root stocks and varieties that seem to be less susceptible, he said. 

Hamner said the CRISPR gene-editing technology, which has been used to help create medicines and vaccines, and it also has huge potential to fight citrus diseases.

“The fact is, with messenger RNA, they have the ability to target a lot of diseases,” Hamner said. Beyond applications in human medicine, Hamner said scientists are working on trees and plant pathology, as well. 

 “I'm very hopeful that that will see something soon that will work,” he said. 

While CRISPR may be a long-term fix, CUPS could be a great idea to shield trees from HLB if the returns on the investment there are he said.

Seedless mandarins are attracting some attention from growers as a potential variety of the future, Hamner said.

“I think that there are lots of problems (with mandarins),” Hamner said. “the good news is that (the variety) is very popular.” The challenge, he said, might be the extensive competition Florida would face, as mandarins are heavily planted in California and around the world.

“I just don't know how far along how far Florida can break into or get hold that market in the long term,” he said. 

Hamner said there now may be about 5,000 acres of lemons planted in Florida now. “I was the only one that packed lemons for 20 or 30 years,” he said, noting that it was a “summer project.”

“We planted a lot of lemons in recent years and our market on lemons is in August and September, a six- to eight-week window. Outside of that window, the big players of Argentina, Chile and then California come in to push Florida lemons out of the market. 

“For us, we come in and start harvesting at the end of July and pack in August and September,” he continued. “There's a fresh fruit demand on lemons during that window of time that misses the (imports), and before Mexico and California, everybody kicks in.” With abundant juice, Florida lemons are superior in certain ways, but just lack the supply to go year-round. “We have to hit our niche in the middle there at the end of summer.”

Like all specialty crop alternatives to oranges and grapefruit, Hamner said market windows are key. “The windows are very tight before we get into competing with the big players.”

Mandarins without seeds would have to be grown under screens to keep bees away. “If you’ve got bees, you are going to get seeds,” he said. While growers have been planting the Bingo mandarin, it has not sized up the way growers would like it to. The low-seeded Orri tangerine is likely the best eating tangerine grown in Florida, Hamner said.

Grapefruit star

For Hamner, grapefruit remains the attraction.

“I guess I have been on the Indian River for too long,” he said. “I have walked, talked and breathed grapefruit, and think right now has the best chance of expansion and returns. If I were doing anything right now, longer term, I’d be looking hard at grapefruit.”

Dark red grapefruit varieties, such as flames and star rubies, have less susceptibility to greening, he said. “Our testing shows, if you get the right rootstock and the darker red (varieties), maybe you can move forward in volume.”

Florida citrus growers have learned about how to maximize citrus production during the era of HLB, he said. 

When trees are planted, Hamner puts a tent over the individual tree for protection against Asian citrus psyllids for two to three years. That is followed by various sprays to help keep trees free from disease into their fifth and sixth years. 

“After that, we hope, with a good upbringing of a youngster, we can move into adolescent trees and maintain our volume that way,” he said. “The production per acre is nothing like it used to be, even on healthy, new trees grown into the five- to 10-year range, but we have been able to produce fruit and maintain some production.”

The duration of time that trees can survive during periods of endemic HLB and canker can vary.

“The rule of thumb was always around 25 years, but we are working on 30 and 40 years in some groves,” he said. 

“We’re still maintaining some pretty health groves,” he added, though allowing that the groves are facing disease pressure. “Production is about half what it used to be per acre.”

As an industry, Hamner said Florida citrus marketers will have to pick their markets and choose what they do with the volume they do have. 

When it comes to competition, Hamner said other global competitors include Israel, Turkey, China, South Africa, Taiwan and, of course, growing Texas and California growing regions.

Hamner said the Florida industry is waiting for the USDA to reimpose inspections with minimum juice requirements for Mexican grapefruit, which were suspended in 2021 in what he considers a bureaucratic snafu. “Hopefully, it will be corrected soon.

“I think that Florida is still, internal quality-wise, probably the best there is,” he continued. “We can hold our own in the market.” Production may sag a little further still, but Hamner said the industry is close to bottoming out, and there is a future for citrus in Florida. 

“If we can get our arms around greening, which, in all candor, we have not yet [done], we feel like there's some light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.

Hamner’s adult children won’t succeed him in the citrus business. 

“After they got out of school, they got great-paying jobs,” he said. “I couldn’t afford them. With all these [challenges] going on, I didn’t really ask or encourage them to come back. It’s kind of a sad affair for me to watch, to be kind of shifting directions and closing down parts of a family business that have been very successful through the years. But that's the price we pay for being the last in line now, I guess.”