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Organic orange juice's popularity is skyrocketing with consumers, growers
By SUSAN SALISBURY
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 19,
2007
The news has been bleak for orange juice sales this year, with diminished supply
leading to higher prices for consumers.
But there's one category of Florida's
signature beverage that's growing.
A honeybee takes off after pollinating an organic
Valencia orange blossom. The blossom sits on a grove owned by Kevin Spooner 3 miles west of
I-95 near Vero Beach.
Shown here are three organic orange varieties grown by Kevin
Spooner, of Sailfish Citrus Inc., which specializes in organic citrus. These oranges are juice
oranges and feature many seeds. Clockwise from top left: pineapple organic orange, Temple
organic orange, Valencia organic orange.
Kevin Spooner of Sailfish Citrus is one of 37
organic citrus growers in Florida. 'Organic growers were the laughingstock of the industry.
now, nobody's laughing,' Spooner says.
Kevin Spooner strolls by one of his white
grapefruit trees. Unlike conventional growers, Spooner's groves are overrun with weeds, which
provide a habitat for beneficial insects, who eat pests, he says.
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It's organic orange juice, and although sales account for less than 1
percent of all OJ sold, advocates say it's a product whose time has come.
"The demand
for organic citrus is extremely high. It's been hard to supply it," said Kevin Spooner, a
Vero Beach-based grower who supplies fruit that ends up as juice at Whole Foods Markets and
also serves as a fresh-fruit shipper under the Spooner's Organics brand and consultant to
other organic growers.
Spooner, 43, owner of Sailfish Citrus Inc., is one of 37 organic
citrus growers in Florida producing fruit on more than 4,900 acres, according to the Florida
Department of Agriculture's citrus license and bond office in Winter Haven.
His groves
3 miles west of Interstate 95 near Vero Beach are overrun with weeds and lots of insects —
even fire ants — and Spooner welcomes both.
Weeds are good because they provide a place
for beneficial insects to live, and when cut, become compost. Fire ants and other beneficial
bugs eat some of the insects that Spooner doesn't want in the grove.
"Conventional
growers used to make fun of my groves because of all the weeds. Organic growers were the
laughingstock of the industry," Spooner said. "They thought it was a passing fad. Now,
nobody's laughing."
Organic orange juice is made from fruit that is grown without
synthetic chemicals of any kind. Most conventional groves today use pesticides and
fertilizers, and their trees stand in well-manicured, orderly rows.
'Better for the
environment'
Consumers such as Liz Gelfand, a Boynton Beach resident and artist who
buys organic orange juice occasionally, says she prefers it because it is grown without the
use of pesticides or synthetic chemicals.
"I buy organic because it is better for the
environment, better for the bees, and I prefer to support Florida growers," Gelfand
said.
Cheryl Boglioli, a Port St. Lucie woman who home-schools her children, agrees.
"I buy it because it does not have the chemicals and preservatives," she said.
The
history of organic citrus in the state goes back to the 1940s, said Mary Mitchell, who co-owns
the Eagle's Nest Grove in the Putnam County town of Crescent City with her husband, Robert.
The 20-acre grove is the nation's oldest one continuously devoted to organic agriculture,
said Mary Mitchell, 47.
Most of the Mitchells' fruit is sold to the fresh market, with
some being sold to juice processors.
"Back in the early years, we did not wash the
fruit, grade it or anything," Mary said. "The true organic person wanted it unwashed and
unwaxed and sent from tree to box. As it got more accepted and started moving toward
mainstream, customers started demanding it washed, waxed and in a clamshell."
As
organic agriculture grows, more non-synthetic fertilizers and natural treatments are being
developed to serve the industry. Trees that are not chemically treated seem to become
naturally more resistant, growers say.
Wade Groetsch, president of Blue Lake Citrus LLC
in Winter Haven, said his operation began producing organic orange juice under its Nobel
Organics line in 2004.
"You start bringing back the natural ecological system to the
grove. The animals, birds and insects that are good for the operation get reestablished," he
said.
Groetsch estimates organic orange juice production in Florida at about 3 million
gallons, worth $18 million or so. That's just a fraction of the $1 billion Florida citrus
industry.
The U.S. market for organic beverages of all kinds totaled $1.3 billion in
2006, an increase of 97 percent from 2001, according to Mintel International Group Ltd. of
Chicago. But organic beverages account for just 2 percent of overall beverage
sales.
Tropicana jumps in
Still, the world's largest orange juice company,
Chicago-based Tropicana, has taken notice.
Tropicana's first organic orange juice
debuted in February at Whole Foods Markets stores and by May should be in select Florida
supermarkets, Tropicana spokesman Pete Brace said.
"It's the only growing market
sector in orange juice," said Jack West, president of Inter-Global, an import-export firm
based in Dade City. "The whole market for organic products has taken off. The only limiting
factor has been the availability of organic products such as orange juice in sufficient
quantities to support demand."
Matt McLean, founder and president of Uncle Matt's
Organic in Clermont, the nation's second-largest organic orange juice brand after LaFarge,
Wis.-based Organic Valley, said he welcomes the attention Tropicana's entry will bring to the
category.
"It will give us a little bit more visibility, which will be good for the
industry," said McLean, 35. "Hopefully, they will spend money promoting the
sector."
McLean's family has grown Florida citrus since the 1920s. In 1999, he
founded Uncle Matt's Organic, and now 15 groves are under the company's organic
certification.
"I started looking into the organic market and said, 'This is
something Granddad has been talking to us about.' This is how we used to grow citrus," he
said. "We had success before. Now we can do it again."
Organic growing not all
rosy
Conventional growers are finding it harder to see the benefit of organic growing,
McLean said.
One primary reason is money: This season, the premium for organic juice is
only 10 percent to 20 percent higher than conventional juice instead of the usual 30 percent
or more. But fresh organic fruit can still command two to three times the price of
conventional fresh citrus, growers say.
Secondly, conventional growers worry that if
they go organic, their groves will suffer from pests and diseases, such as citrus canker and
greening, that they will not be able to fight with the usual chemicals, including the
insecticides used on the psyllid insects that spread greening.
Stan Carter, citrus
division manager for McArthur Farms in Fort Pierce, said the company has considered growing
some organic citrus, but decided against it because volume would decline.
"Right now I
am trying to salvage what groves I can from canker and greening, and I am not willing to lose
any more to pests and diseases," Carter said. "I am not convinced this is not just a flash
in the pan."
Despite the challenges, McLean said the company has 600 to 700 acres in
transition to organic.
In Vero Beach, Spooner said psyllids have not been a problem in
his grove because beneficial insects "eat psyllids like candy."
What the organic
growers are really doing is returning to growing citrus the way it used to be grown in the
1950s and earlier, Spooner said. He uses standbys such as fish emulsion fertilizers, which
also help control citrus problems such as rust mites.
Spooner began converting his
first 150 acres of groves to organic methods in 1991, after paying a visit to Colorado and
seeing the headquarters for Wild Oats Markets under construction and deciding there must be a
future in organics.
He learned by trial and error and consulting pioneers such as the
Mitchells. His groves were certified organic in 1994.
Today, he leases 1,355 acres of
organic groves and handles fresh fruit and juice for Lindsey Citrus Management with just under
2,000 acres.
"We basically listened to the trees. When they needed food, we gave them
food. When they needed water, we gave them water," Spooner said. "I felt that it would be a
neat way to go and keep from poisoning the Indian River Lagoon."
For Spooner, going
organic is about a lifestyle decision.
"We're giving people a choice," he said.
"People who care about themselves and their children."
He points to a few bees
feeding on blossoms for next season.
"We just finished the pineapple oranges and they
were beautiful," he said. "The deer love to bed down in the grasses under these
trees."
 Print | 24-03-2007, 19:30:00
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