Gulf Citrus has Come of Age

Florida's Gulf coast citrus growers are at a turning point, leading a decade of unprecedented worldwide expansion. Global citrus supply is exceeding demand. Markets haven't kept up with accelerated production triggered in 15 countries by three 100-year freezes that dampened Florida's output in the 1980s.

Local growers are taking steps now to ensure the survival of businesses that pour $1 billion into the regional economy and account for nearly a quarter of Florida's second-largest industry. The next five years are pivotal.

Southern Competition

"Florida's citrus industry is 100 years old, but the Gulf region didn't come of age until 10 to 12 years ago, when new tree plantings shifted south following upstate freezes," says Ron Hamel, general manager of Gulf Citrus Growers Association, headquartered in LaBelle. "Consequently, the Gulf region has an advantage. Not only does our climate consistently deliver premium quality fruit, newer groves can be laid out to use cost-saving technologies."

Florida's southern expansion strategy has worked well. But good weather also blessed Brazil, the global leader in citrus exports, which has flooded the market with low-cost orange juice concentrate.

In 1996-97, following a decade of prosperity, Gulf orange growers harvested record crops and were lucky to break even. Grapefruit growers have lost money for four years running. Only the small fresh-fruit market has continued to turn a profit.

"You have to be an optimist in the agriculture business," says Greg Carlton, grove manager for Southern Gardens Groves in Clewiston. "So many factors come into play. Low prices caused by oversupply are usually what force you to step back and re-evaluate your practices. Then, when prices return to reasonable levels, you're better off."

Reasonable prices for juice oranges, by far the region's highest-volume citrus crop, are $.90 to $1 per pound of solids (squeezed raw juice). At 1997-98 market prices of $.57 to $.65 cents a pound solid, farmers with any debt service to pay won't make it.

Citrus Survival Strategies

"If we can obtain an average of 3,500 pounds (solid) per acre across our company, we can survive this period of low prices and even remain profitable at today's prices" says John Merritt, vice president of operations at Turner Foods in Punta Gorda, in a 1997 Citrus Industry interview. Currently, per-acre productivity for this seven-county operation hovers around 3,000 pounds solid. Anything less gets renovated or plowed under.

Planting trees closer together (replacing one tree with as many as five trees) is one survival strategy used by today's growers. Irrigating with computerized targeted microsprinklers, using sensors to selectively spray chemicals, digitally mapping soil type and moisture content, and monitoring tree production levels are others.

"We were going like a house afire for years, planting new trees now coming to maturity. Now we're looking for ways to cut costs without cutting production," says Carlton. "Often, we can save enough in raw materials in one year to pay for a new technology."

The Labor Issue

Mechanical harvesting, which would drastically reduce unit costs, may be the industry's salvation. Still in pilot programs, it's been a long time coming. Harvesting claims more than half of the man-hours required to bring a citrus crop to market. They are man-hours increasingly fraught with controversy.

"Labor has always been a problem, though not an insurmountable one," says Jim English, fourth-generation co-owner of the English Bros. groves of Alva. The family, like 80 percent of Gulf citrus growers, subcontracts its pickers for the November through June season. Year-round grove caretaking staff lives on the property or nearby.

"The biggest labor issue is a potential shortage of farm labor, based on the fact that workers are highly mobile," says John Scala, human resources manager for Gulf Harvesting of Lehigh.

"Another problem is undocumented immigrants applying for work," says Scala. "The government has a loaded gun aimed at agricultural companies, but has not yet pulled the trigger. They may be waiting to see if mechanical harvesting comes about on a large scale. They may be waiting for people to come off welfare roles in the next 12 to 16 months. But these people aren't socialized to work side by side with migrants and immigrants. You have to decide to work with one group or the other."

The 1997 tightening of Immigration and Naturalization Service codes and impending enforcement adds to the problem. "The industry is full of ambiguities and complications tied to Florida's tumultuous labor regulations," says Scala.

"Increasing legalities are making it hard for some subcontractors to stay in business," says Billy Funk, harvest manager for Gator Harvesting of LaBelle. "Laws are amended and added to every year, spelling out different boundaries we must abide by." Keeping up with documents and paychecks for highly mobile workers requires three full-time employees at Gator, which averaged 250 to 300 harvesters per day in 1995, but recorded 1,200 employees through the season.

"Put a crimp in the flow of workers and the whole situation could change overnight," says Leo Polopolus, professor emeritus of Food and Resource Economics at the University of Florida, Gainesville. "Currently, we have no provision for guest workers to do work that Americans won't (be) willingly do. Without guest workers, how high will wages have to go to attract harvest crews? Wages in Mexico and other Hispanic countries won't catch up to U.S. wages--ranging around $7 an hour--in our lifetime."

Housing is viewed as the number one inducement for maintaining a reliable local labor pool, according to Fritz Roka, professor of agriculture economics for the University of Florida's Southwest Florida Research and Education Center. But few growers feel comfortable getting into the housing business. One answer may be found in growers working as a group to secure assistance for government housing.

Assaults on the Gulf

Unfortunately, some rural family citrus groves established years ago now find themselves caught in urban sprawl. New neighbors complain. They don't like dwelling beside pre-existing groves because of the spraying. Yet groves provide an urgently needed buffer between development and wildlife habitat.

Investor Kevin Stoneburner, who owns modest citrus acreage in Naples and Bonita Springs, sees himself easing out of the juice orange business due to increasing challenges and diminishing returns. Bill McCauley-Pulling, a third-generation grower, however, is busy sinking profits back into his family's fresh-fruit business, Temple Citrus Grove, in Naples.

"Encroaching development is threatening our way of life," says McCauley-Pulling. "Our groves are now in the middle of a major growth area. Ironically, they give the area the charming flavor that attracted people here in the