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Fruits Of Labor

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By RUSSELL RAY, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 20, 2007

Updated: 12/19/2007 09:12 pm

ODESSA - Drew Burchenal and his dad, Bill, have been hunched over a conveyor for days, inspecting the fresh, hand-picked citrus from their 220-acre citrus farm in Odessa.

This is the busiest week of the year for the Burchenal's family business, Cee Bee's Citrus, and others like it, as millions of pounds of fresh Florida citrus - tangerines, navel oranges and ruby red grapefruit - are shipped to homes and offices across the country in holiday gift baskets.

"We've been going six days a week, from dawn 'til dusk," said Drew Burchenal.

Like other packers and shippers of fresh Florida citrus, Cee Bee's generates about 50 percent of its annual retail sales between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The spread of canker and greening, diseases that hurt the health and production of citrus trees, and a USDA rule that bans the shipment of fresh Florida citrus to other citrus-producing states haven't hurt sales, growers and industry officials say.

"Our volume is ahead of last year," Bill Burchenal said.

The gift-fruit business is a small but valuable piece of Florida's $9 billion-a-year citrus industry. About 10 percent of Florida's citrus is sold as fresh fruit. The rest is sold as juice and concentrate. Tangerines, navel oranges and ruby red grapefruit are the mainstays of holiday gift-fruit baskets.

But the amount of Florida citrus shipped as holiday gifts this year might have plunged, if federal regulators hadn't stepped in to loosen the rules that restrict the shipment of fresh Florida citrus to other states.

Last month, as the first boxes of gift-fruit began rolling out of packinghouses, the USDA issued a rule change that allowed Florida's citrus growers to ship more fruit to out-of-state markets.

Before the rule change, if canker was found on a single tree, none of the fruit from that grove could be shipped outside the state.

The new rule moved the canker inspections from the grove to the packinghouse. Now, only fruit with the scab-like lesions associated with canker and any fruit that may have come in contact with canker-infected fruit will be barred to out-of-state markets.

"It's freed up about 20 percent more fruit for shipping," said Andrew Meadows, a spokesman for Florida Citrus Mutual, a trade group for citrus growers in Florida. "Now, if canker lesions are found, that load is affected. But it doesn't affect the entire grove."

Groves no longer have to be certified as canker-free before the fruit can be shipped outside the state. Instead, a sample is taken from each load and inspected by USDA inspectors at the packinghouse.

The inspectors "pay a little more attention to detail because we're not required to have the grove inspectors," Bill Burchenal said.

Canker, a bacterial disease that causes lesions on the leaves, stems and fruit of citrus trees, is spread one of two ways: rain and wind.

In 2004 and 2005, several hurricanes ripped across Florida, spreading the disease to orange groves throughout the state.

About 2.5 million boxes of Florida fruit will be shipped as gifts this year, about the same as last year, according to the Florida Gift Fruit Shippers Association. One box holds 80 to 90 pounds of citrus.

About 65 percent of the gift fruit purchased in the United States comes from Florida, said Amy Carpenter, manager of in-state marketing for the Florida Department of Citrus.

Florida citrus is the "perfect gift of health and wellness," Carpenter said. "It's beautiful, it's ripe, it's juicy and, of course, it's very healthy."

Cee Bee's deadline for guaranteed Christmas deliveries was Monday, but the orders keep coming in. Tuesday morning, the company received more than 100 Christmas orders from its Web site alone.

Reporter Russell Ray can be reached at (813) 259-7870 or rray@tampatrib.com.

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