Citrus Growers Face Hard Times Bumper Crop, Slumping Prices Create Dilemma For Orchardists

Workers at Riverfront Groves handpick and box grapefruit into two groups: The yellow, plump ones are placed into boxes bound for England, Japan and Taiwan. The scarred, discolored ones - ordinarily used for juice - are eventually dumped in a cow pasture.

Growers say they have no choice.

Prices are three-fifths of what they were two years ago and production is at an alltime high.

Now, with the citrus season set to kick off Friday, growers are concerned another record year will mean even more depressed prices.

“The market has been tough,” said Dan Richey, president of Riverfront Groves, which owns or manages about 3,000 acres of citrus, primarily grapefruit.

Analysts and growers believe this year’s crop could exceed the record-breaking 226.2 million boxes of oranges and 55.8 million boxes of grapefruit that were produced last season. Each box weighs roughly 90 pounds.

Growers will have a better idea of what to expect after the Florida Agricultural Statistics Service releases its first citrus crop forecast of the 1997-1998 season on Friday. The season starts in October with grapefruit picking and continues through June when the last of the Valencia oranges are harvested.

Orange prices averaged $3.87 per box last season, down from $4.68 per box in the previous season. Grapefruit prices averaged $1.23 per box last season, down from $2.14 per box in 1995-1996.

The average price for oranges was the lowest in two years. Grapefruit had the lowest average price in more than 20 years. Most of Florida’s oranges are used for juice, while almost half of Florida’s grapefruit are shipped abroad.

The current abundance of citrus can be blamed on overplanting that followed tree-killing freezes in the 1980s, said Ernie Thomas, a citrus specialist with Merrill Lynch in Winter Park, Fla.

“A lot of those trees - they’re not yet seven years old - are hitting their prime,” Thomas said.