Why Florida sells California oranges

While shopping at Publix in North Miami Beach with my grandmother this past weekend, I noticed that all the oranges in the produce section came from California. I thought to myself, "why is Florida, one of the biggest citrus-producers, getting their oranges 'imported' from 3.000 miles away at the height of citrus season?"

I got my answer last night while listening to APM's Marketplace on WBEZ. They were reporting a story about the destruction of the citrus crop in California and how this will affect Florida farmers. Apparently, nearly all of Florida's orange harvest goes to juice-making. They explained this by stating that the climate in Florida produced a greener (but juicier) orange with bruised skin while California's climate produced a smoother, more orange orange. Guess which one sells better on supermarket shelves?

This isn't really surprising or contrary to what we already know about large-scale produce farming in this country. Although, I had assumed that certain states that maintain a particular pride in a specific crop wouldn't be importing said crop from other states. Does Idaho import potatoes? Does Washington import apples?

Best,
Michael

My parents, who live in Venice, Florida, claim they can get no good fruit in Florida. I have always been a little skeptical about this claim, though it reminded me, ironically, of when the wife and I owned some land out in New Lisbon, Wisconsin. Farms all around; supermarket produce, terrible. The ways of corporate farming and national distribution networks is, indeed, mysterious...and kind of sickening.

Hammond

David Hammond wrote:My parents, who live in Venice, Florida, claim they can get no good fruit in Florida. I have always been a little skeptical about this claim, though it reminded me, ironically, of when the wife and I owned some land out in New Lisbon, Wisconsin. Farms all around; supermarket produce, terrible. The ways of corporate farming and national distribution networks is, indeed, mysterious...and kind of sickening.

I think the secret in Florida is like anywhere else: Stay the heck out of the supermarkets. While driving down Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach this past weekend with my in-laws, we passed an indoor flea market which had a huge line outside with some outdoor booths. I asked my father-in-law what the line was for. He replied "the produce stand. The farmers set up there and they're sold out by 10am."

Best,
Michael

I noticed this years ago when I discovered that it was easier to get fresh squeezed orange juice in Chicago than in Marco Island, FL.

And it's not just Florida. I was appalled at the cost and the quality of the mostly Mexican, Chilean, anything but Californian produce at the two markets in Tiburon, CA, last summer, an hour from the fields and groves of northern California, 15 minutes from the Marin County Farmer's Market where so much of it is sold, and 100 yards from the ferry to the Ferry Building full of gorgeous local produce from THIS side of the Bay. I had to eat one of the most beautiful balls of fresh mozzarella you've ever seen with two of the saddest tomatoes ever grown.

Florida's warm, wet clime is better for juice oranges and grapefruits. The market for juice dwarfs the market for hand-fruit, and I have read that percentage of US orange acreage in CA and FL is 25% and 70%, respectively, with the crumbs distributed in TX, AZ. Including grapefruit, FL has 90% of the US's citrus market and is the major exporter along with Brazil (whose southern pampas areas looked to me amazingly familiar and similar to central FL). The majority is in OJ concentrate. A side-of-the road farm-stand under a live oak in FL can provide some fine citrus, boiled peanuts, and possibly even fresh shrimp. But an Albertson's is an Albertson's. I mean, Michigan's apples, pears, cherries, berries etc. are superior and very close by, but that doesn't stop grocers from stocking bland, picked-green fruit from Chile and Washington.

David Hammond wrote:My parents, who live in Venice, Florida, claim they can get no good fruit in Florida. I have always been a little skeptical about this claim, though it reminded me, ironically, of when the wife and I owned some land out in New Lisbon, Wisconsin. Farms all around; supermarket produce, terrible. The ways of corporate farming and national distribution networks is, indeed, mysterious...and kind of sickening.

Hammond

I agree with your parents. I always look for California Oranges (Sunkist brand are my favorites) when buying. I find them to be much sweeter than the Florida variants.

John McPhee's 1975 book Oranges is still in print. I haven't read it in many years, but thanks to Amazon's "look inside this book" I can quote it exactly:

Californians say that if you want to eat a Florida orange you have to get into a bathtub first.....In Florida it is said that you can run over a California orange with a ten-ton truck and not even wet the pavement.

When I was in Florida last spring, I wanted to pick up some oranges on my way from Naples to the Tampa Airport and I had some time, so I began to pick my way north on surface roads. I had noticed earlier in the trip that it was not so easy to find plain old roadside citrus stands as it used to be.

After a fairly miserable trek through the eastern outskirts of Sarasota and a drive right through the middle of Bradenton, I did finally find an excellent stand at the last exit before getting on the I 275 bridge. They had a dozen different varieties of citrus, including tangerines, tangelos, oranges, grapefruits, and samples were available, plus fresh squeezed OJ and Grapefruit juice. Almost everything was available to sample.

I think it was:

The Citrus Place
7200 Us Highway 19
Palmetto, FL 34221
(941) 722-6745

But it might have been:

Citrus Ranch
4805 Buckeye Rd
Palmetto, FL 34221
(941) 723-0504

Either way, next time I go to Tampa and have a car, I will be back there.

As to the comments about getting good produce in Supermarkets, I still remember the legendary (in my mind) discussion with a Jewel Produce manager someone posted here a while back which I quote regularly. I think it was in a thread about tomatoes.

"Why do you sell these industrial tomatoes in the middle of the summer, instead of going down the road and buying real, good tomatoes?"

"Because if we sold them in the summer, no one would buy our tomatoes in the winter..."

I doubt that is the real truth, but there is some truth to it. The chains rely on large, reliable suppliers. Small, local growers can always do better for whatever is in season, but they cannot provide the volume the markets need, or the reliable, consistent, year-round supply. It would be a lot more work to source independently from hundreds of suppliers, and most consumers would not pay for it, sigh.

But I really do miss fresh citrus and juice as a primary touristy attraction in Florida. Not sure when the stands started to disappear, but you do need to search these days.

Over the past 5 years central Florida has been hit pretty hard with hurricanes and tornadoes. There was quite a bit of damage to many of the old orange groves. Instead of reinvesting many farmers sold the land to developers. The population and urban growth made the land more valuable for development vs. raising citrus.

Yeah, not one orange grove is left in the OC of CA for this same reason, and I'm sure it'll be true in the OC of FL soon.

By the way, the best place to get great citrus in FL is from your back yard (or your neighbor's). One small tree will yield more oranges than you can handle.

greening bacterial disease is devastating Fla citrus. This has been on-going over 10 years and i am surprised there hasn't been a fix/replacement-varietal. Almost all back-yard home trees are gone. visiting in-laws 12/18/13, sad to see. Even the kumquats. fiddler

eatchicago wrote:They explained this by stating that the climate in Florida produced a greener (but juicier) orange with bruised skin while California's climate produced a smoother, more orange orange. Guess which one sells better on supermarket shelves?

Have you noticed that the physical appearance of fruit seems to be inversely proportional to the flavor? Some friends recently gave me some apples grown near their home in NC. The apples were small, scarred and unevenly colored, but they were juicy, crisp, sweet, thin skinned and absolutely delicious. Compare that to a beautiful large, deep-red, perfectly shaped Macintosh that I recently bought, which was mealy and dry, with plastic-like skin and no flavor. I first noticed this relationship when I was working in Switzerland, where the produce is wizened and bruised, but consistently scrumptious (and expensive).