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Citrus Growers To Feel Squeeze

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By RUSSELL RAY

rray@tampatrib.com

Published: October 13, 2008

BARTOW - Citrus grower Bob Stallings is used to battling citrus disease and skyrocketing production costs.

But the latest threat to Stallings' 155-acre orange grove in Polk County is a formidable force that may be impossible to stop.

As a new season begins, Stallings and the rest of the state's orange growers fear that the new economic crisis will force consumers with tight budgets to buy less orange juice.

"The orange juice manufacturers may not be able to move the product," said Stallings. "It may be a bad year, even though we have a lesser crop."

Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it expects Florida growers to produce 166 million boxes of oranges this season, 2.5 percent less than last season's yield of 170 million boxes. Each box weighs 90 pounds.
Mark Wheeler of Wheeler Farms, which manages 2,400 acres of orange groves across the state, said growers would have preferred a lower estimate because orange juice inventories are building amid decreasing demand.

U.S. orange juice sales have dropped 4.5 percent during the 11 months that ended Aug. 30, according to a report on the Florida Department of Citrus Web site.

"Consumers now are obviously very sensitive to everything they are purchasing," Wheeler said.

Michael Sparks, chief executive of Florida Citrus Mutual, a growers' organization, said the concerns created by the ailing economy are valid and he urged manufacturers and retailers to beef up their advertising budgets. Right now, growers bear most of the promotion costs.

"More than ever, we need the marketing," Sparks said.
Orange juice manufacturers such as Tropicana and Minute Maid have cut their advertising budgets by 70 percent over the past five years, said Citrus Mutual spokesman Andrew Meadows.

"The growers cannot continue to shoulder the burden for marketing," he said.

But perhaps the biggest problem facing growers is the spread of citrus greening, an insect-borne bacteria that kills a tree's vascular system and sours the fruit. Wheeler said he has lost more than 1,200 trees to greening.

So far, the industry has been unable to keep it from spreading. The disease has spread to all of Florida's citrus-growing counties. Meanwhile, spraying, detection and replanting are driving production costs sky high.

"You've got a lot of growers who are taking trees out of their groves and that's our biggest concern," Wheeler said.

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