The supply-chain chaos that has stalled shipments impacting commerce and construction across America has delivered another devastating blow to our already-reeling citrus industry.
The same bottlenecks that are preventing the docking and unloading of cargo ships at U.S. ports – delaying shipment of goods to our stores – are inhibiting the delivery of locally grown, harvested and packed citrus to foreign markets.
“While everyone else is waiting for their stuff to come in, we’re waiting for our stuff to go out, and it’s impacting us in a dramatic way,” said Dan Richey, a longtime and knowledgeable local citrus ambassador and president of Riverfront Packing Company on U.S. 1 in Gifford.
But local industry leaders insist it’s not a knockout punch.
“We’ve taken a lot of hits the past 20 years … but a few of us are still standing and we’re not going away,” Richey said. “We’ll find a way to fight through this, just like we’ve fought through all the others.”
There’s no good reason to doubt him, given his vast experience and the local citrus industry’s ability to survive the barrage of bad breaks it has endured the past two decades.
Unlike the crises of yesteryear, however – particularly the citrus diseases and hurricanes that destroyed groves and crippled production – this latest jolt is manmade.
Most of the grapefruit produced locally is shipped to Europe and Asia, but the recent uncertainty at the California ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach has wreaked havoc on scheduling and delivery of citrus to lucrative markets in Japan and Korea.
According to Richey, it takes two drivers – rotating shifts so they don’t need to stop – four days to truck his company’s citrus from Florida to the ports in Southern California.
Sometimes, however, the company will alert the drivers that the outgoing ships are still anchored off the California coast, waiting to dock and unload, and tell them to park on the side of the road and wait.
Some ships arrive at the ports 15 to 20 days later than expected, leaving drivers with no choice but to deliver loads to ports’ transfer stations, where they can be stored in refrigerated containers until they can be loaded for shipping.
“It’s a logistical nightmare, the worst I’ve ever seen,” Richey said. “Fortunately, grapefruit stores pretty well and we use refrigerated trucks, so we haven’t lost any loads yet. But we still have some loads that haven’t found a boat yet.”
Another option, Richey said, is to ship the citrus from ports in Jacksonville; Savannah, Georgia; or Charleston, South Carolina. From there, though, the trip to Japan and Korea can take 30 to 45 days.
“I’ve convinced most of our customers to accept the delay,” Richey said. “It’ll take longer, but we know it’s going to get there.”
There are also backups at East Coast ports, too, but Richey said shipping across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe is “more manageable,” adding that local grapefruit producers need the international markets.
For those who don’t know: Most of local orange crop is sold domestically.
“We’re packing fruit that goes to U.S. markets, so we don’t have the same problems as the exporters,” said Tom Jerkins, president of Premier Citrus Packers on 66th Avenue, just north of Oslo Road.
But grapefruit is a different story, and the impact of the recent shipping woes raises the question: How much more punishment can local citrus growers and packers absorb before they go down?
They’ve spent the past 20 years struggling to overcome the relentless and devastating damage done to Florida’s once-heralded citrus industry by canker, hurricanes and greening.
Most of them, in fact, have given up.
Of the 17 commercial packing houses in business in Indian River County at the turn of the millennium, only four are still operating: Riverfront, Premier, IMG Citrus off Old Dixie Highway in Gifford, and Egan Fruit Packing in Fellsmere.
“The ones that are left, though, are here for the ride,” said Doug Bournique, executive director of the Indian River Citrus League. “I’m pretty sure they’ll stay with it.”
But for how long?
Nobody seems to know when the current backlog at the ports will clear, but economic and trade experts say it might be late next year before we see a return to normal in the supply chain.
That will seem like an eternity to the local citrus community, which is still coping with the effects of greening – the infection of trees with psyllids that originated in China, feed on leaves and stems, and make fruits inedible.
“Canker was bad, but greening is the big bogeyman now,” Bournique said. “We’ve got to find a disease-resistant tree. There’s been a lot of research done the past 15 years, and there are pieces to the puzzle coming together, but we haven’t come up with anything earth shattering yet.”
During its heyday in the 1980s and ’90s, citrus groves were plentiful and productive, visible throughout much of the county. Now, you won’t see many east of I-95, and there are even fewer east of U.S. 1.
But Bournique and Richey are optimistic there will be a comeback, albeit a modest one.
“It’ll never be what is was in 2000, when citrus was an iconic Florida industry,” Bournique said.
“You won’t see the same types of numbers – not in production, or profits, or employees. We’ll be smaller.
“But the citrus industry here thrived not only because of hard work,” he added. “The climate to grow grapefruits and oranges is perfect in Florida, and especially in the Indian River region.
This is citrus country.
“We grow the best fruit on earth, by far.”
Let there be no doubt: Indian River is still a big name in citrus, which remains a big industry with a big impact on Florida’s economy.
The industry leaders here take pride in that legacy – so much so that they’ve begun re-planting.
“Ten years ago, there was none of that,” Bournique said. “Now, a number of groves are being replanted, which is a promising sign. We’re still hopeful we’ll cure greening.”
Richey said the higher prices local growers and packers are getting for their fruit allow them to remain profitable, so if they can somehow increase production, “we should be in pretty good shape.”
The current shipping issues, though, need to be resolved.
“Those international markets are incredibly important to us, and we need them open and accessible,” Bournique said. “The domestic market can only take so much. We need to figure this out as quickly as possible.”
Citrus might not be the backbone of our local economy, as it was 40 years ago, but it’s a significant part of the heritage of this community. So it’s painful to see the industry take such a beating, then get hit again.
“We’re living what you’re seeing on the news,” Richey said, “but we haven’t been knocked out.”
