Gilberto Jaramillo drives a goat (orange tree picker truck) at the DeSoto City
grove of Robert J. Barben Inc. on Tuesday in Highlands County.
http://www2.highlandstoday.com/content/2009/feb/04/la-orange-juice-origins/
Orange Juice Origins
By GARY PINNELL
Highlands Today
Published: February 4, 2009
SEBRING - In the heart of citrus country, people assume oranges are locally grown.
But that's not always true. Whole oranges, the kind for peeling and eating, mostly come from California, according to their labels at the supermarket.
Florida oranges are grown mostly for their juice, but check the cartons at the market, and it turns out that Simply Orange, Dole, Minute Maid and Tropicana contain juice from Brazil, Costa Rica and Mexico.
"I don't know how much of that juice comes from Florida and how much comes from Brazil," said Ray Royce, who represents Highlands County growers. "But you've probably never had a carton of orange juice that's just from Brazil. It's a blend of Florida juice and juice from Brazil and Mexico and the Caribbean."
Only half the brands at the supermarket are labeled with 100 percent Florida juice, including Indian River, Hannaford and Homemaker.
Florida Pure has this label: "From Florida and only from Florida."
Citrus Out, Citrus In
Fresh fruit exports from Florida totaled 12.7 million 45-pound cartons during the 2006-07 season. Most of the oranges went to Canada, and Japan fruit, according to Florida Citrus Mutual, a grower's association.
Florida also shipped out 18.6 million gallons of frozen concentrate orange and grapefruit juice, and 26 million gallons of not-from-concentrate juice in 2006-07.
How much orange juice is imported into the U.S.?
A Highlands County man who inspects orange juice ships said fewer than five ships a year came from Brazil five years ago.
"Now, I see three ships a month," said the federal worker, who couldn't speak for the record. "One of them carries 4 million gallons."
When the ships are unloaded at the port, 18-wheelers line up, a spigot is attached to the trailer, and when it's filled, trucks take off for local juice plants.
Chaotic Market
In 2003-04, Florida grew a bumper crop: 242,000 boxes. The next year, recalled Andrew Meadows, a spokesman for Florida Citrus Mutual, hurricanes swarmed the Sunshine State, and orange production dropped to a mere 150,000 boxes.
"Imports of Brazilian juice went up significantly at that time," Meadows said.
Avon Park grower John Barben is philosophical about imported juice.
"We've got to have the exports to fill the supply we built with our advertising," Barben said.
Even more ironic: Florida juice plants are full, Barben said. There's so much juice in storage that the juice plants are telling Barben to pick more slowly.
So this year, orange growers are caught in an economic vice: the small 2007-08 crop boosted wholesale and retail prices last year. Then the $4 a gallon gasoline crisis pressured homemakers to choose between items like milk and OJ.
Now, an oversupply of juice has lowered both the demand and the wholesale price, said Meadows.
"The price is about 70 cents per pounds of solids. That doesn't cover the standard production costs," Meadows said.
Barben and other growers have hired workers just to look for greening and canker diseases. They go down every other row, tagging infected trees which must be pulled from the ground.
"It's a challenging time," said Meadows.
Highlands Today senior reporter Gary Pinnell can be reached at 863-386-5828 or gpinnell@highlandstoday.com 
