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At busiest time of year, citrus gets new rules

By Florida Today
Published November 24, 2007

MELBOURNE - Just as Florida's fruit shippers are entering their busy period, they've been saddled with some additional scrutiny: full-time government inspectors in the packinghouses, checking citrus for signs of canker blemishes.

"I know they're just doing their job," said Jim Harvey, an owner of Harvey's Groves in Rockledge, one of Brevard County's major fruit shippers. "But it certainly is inconvenient."

Growers and shippers like Harvey's are expected to be steadily busy between now and Dec. 12, the deadline for ordering fruit and gift baskets to ensure Christmas delivery.

Thanksgiving through Christmas is an all-important busy season for fruit shippers. Growers say between 50 and 75 percent of their retail sales are made during that period.

Florida growers produce oranges and grapefruit for juice, while most of the higher-end fruit, such as zipper-skin tangerines and navel oranges, are mainstays of holiday gift packages.

Donna Garren, executive vice president of the Florida Gift Fruit Shippers Association in Orlando, said she expects 2.5-million boxes of fruit to be sent as gifts this year, about the same as last year. A fruit box holds about 90 pounds of oranges or 85 pounds of grapefruit, a standard production measurement in the citrus industry.

The USDA inspectors in the packinghouses, while an inconvenience to growers, actually should benefit the state citrus industry, said Andrew Meadows, a spokesman for the Florida Citrus Mutual.

The USDA has just issued a rule change allowing untainted fresh citrus from Florida groves where inspectors might have found canker to be shipped to most states in the nation. Previously, if a canker had been found in a grove, all fruit from the grove would be barred from shipping.

[Last modified November 23, 2007, 22:26:25]