by Jerry W. Jackson | Sentinel Staff Writer
4:18 PM EST, November 9, 2007

Florida was the undisputed leader in oranges and orange juice for more than a century before Brazil claimed the title not that many years ago. But next week a big Florida-grower owned juice cooperative is taking on the multibillion dollar imported-juice industry with a brash TV campaign.

Florida's Natural, a Polk County based juice producer that buys oranges from the Orlando area and throughout the state, is launching a "Just Say 'No' to imported Oranges," campaign.

The 15-second TV spots won't rank among the heavyweights of Madison Avenue campaigns but it does strike at the heart of the controversy over imported foreign products at a time when lead-tainted toys from China and other imports are under scrutiny.

"Now, more than ever, Americans want to know what they are feeding their families and where their food comes from," said Walt Lincer, vice president of sales and marketing at Florida's Natural.

The Lake Wales –based cooperative is the only major national brand of not-from-concentrate juice – pasteurized, ready-to-drink juice – that uses Florida oranges exclusively, Lincer said.

Beginning Monday, the TV ads will ask why other juice companies would import juice from Brazil, Mexico and other countries, when Florida produces billions of pounds or oranges for juicing even during a lean harvest season.

The answer, not addressed in the ads, is that big companies such as Minute Maid and Tropicana have not always been able to get as many oranges as they really needed for juicing, especially during freeze years of the past.

But that reliance on imported juice has been used to great extent by Brazil to slowly gain the lead on Florida, using Florida's own time tasted techniques for juice production.

Brazil and Florida companies in the past decade have integrated more than ever, blending their operations in much the same way that auto manufacturers blend their products and operations domestically and internationally.

Florida's Natural premium juice is produced by the grower-owned company made up of 13 grower associations, with more than 1,000 growers and spanning 50,000 acres of the state's citrus groves, much of it in the heart of the old Citrus Belt of Central Florida, before the industry made a move south in the 1980s and early 1990s.

The company, once known for the Donald Duck brand of citrus juice and its Citrus World name, inherited the old Bluebird brand from an Orlando company.. That company, owned by the Caruso citrus family of Orlando, went out of business. But Florida's Natural is still run today by Stephen Caruso, of Orlando, whose ancestors helped launch the multibillion dollar juice business in both Florida and Brazil.

Big juice importers such as Louis Dreyfus Citrus, based in west Orange County, bristle at any suggestion that imported orange juice is unnecessary.

Brazil helps meet Florida's orange juice needs, and U.S. juice shortfalls, year in and year out, not just in free years, said Rick Tomlin, president of Louis Dreyfus, which has its worldwide juice division headquarters in Winter Garden.

"There's not enough product grown here to meet demand," Tomlin said Friday afternoon, after seeing the story on OrlandoSentinel.com

He said that even Florida's Natural has imported juice to meet its own sales needs in the past, and any advertising that may leave an impression that imported juice is less wholesome or safe is wrong.

It appears that it is negative advertising," said Tomlin, whose Paris-based parent company owns juice processing facilities in Brazil. It also processes juice in Martin County, and has a major storage facility in Winter Garden where it processed oranges for many years. The plant still packages juice for retail, but the processing operation was shut down a few years ago, after decades of producing juice for many Orange County citrus families such as the Ropers, Tildens, Sadlers, Rosses and Chicones. The families no longer have stakes in the operation, which employs 125 people.

..............."The answer, not addressed in the ads, is that big companies such as Minute Maid ...... have not always been able to get as many oranges as they really needed for juicing, especially during freeze years of the past"....................

I do not think this is a true statement, because Minute Maid, which is 100 percent owned by the Coke Cola Company, has as a course of business never purchased any oranges from Florida, whether there is a shortage or a glut. Minute Made purchases all of their requirements from a company called Sucocitico which is a Brazilian company that is owned by the Cutrale family. This purchasing practice has been going on for years and years. This is why I never buy Minute Maid juice. Tropicana also buys a huge amount of Brazilian oranges.

Millet,
That's not quite right -- Cutrale is now a major player in Florida, so much of their juice is actually Florida-grown. I think they, like Tropicana, probably have about a 60/40 (Florida/Brazil) mix, most years. Of course that varies with the size of the crop in the two areas, from year to year.

As for the statement that there is no nutritional difference, I'd have to disagree with the reporter there -- Florida law requires the processors to be pretty picky about maturity of the oranges being used. In some years, that works against us, in that our juice may be too low in acid for a good blend. As far as I know, Brazil continues to use the practice of throwing in a certain percentage of clearly immature, therefore very sour, oranges, to adjust their juice's acidity. While that does solve the acidity problem, it can introduce "off" flavors from the immature fruit. I'm not sure what that says about nutritional value, but it does mean that there are measurable chemical differences in the two products.

Dr. Manners your are also "correct" in your statement about the Cutrale family and "Florida" orange juice. - to a point. The Cutrale family is very astute. When the United States and the state of Florida slapped tariffs on imported Brazilian orange juice and started legal proceeding for dumping against Sucocitrico, the Cutrales moved to action. The family used Sucocitrico's fortunes and bought up lands and orchards and also processing plants in Florida - in Polk County in particular. This is the same as Toyota Motors, building cars in the United States to get around US laws, with the money from car sales going back to Japan. The profits from Sucocitrico's "Florida" orange groves and Polk county processing plants goes back to the Cutrale family in Brazil. Their U.S. groves are nothing more than Brazilian orange groves growing outside of Cutrale's home country. Sucocitrico's U.S. operations certainly are no friend to the Florida citrus growers, in their efforts to survive. Sucocitrico USA is a one way street that leads out of Florida.

Oh no argument there at all, but at least the fruit is grown in the US, and therefore must be judged by USDA and State of Florida legal standards.

Amen.