ORANGES—Orange Growers Fall on Hard Times in Tough Market

Orange sales in Ventura County are so bad this year, citrus growers are giving their crops away. It’s such a problem for citrus farmer Pete Becerra that he is running an ad in the Penny Saver that states: “Free oranges at Becerra Ranch. You pick. Bring containers.” “Money wise, it’s really hurting,” said Becerra, 71, a retired civil service worker who owns orange groves in Piru and Fillmore. Though he’s made money on his crops in the past, he’s not earning anything this year for his oranges, and will be forced to dip into his savings account to pay his mortgage and other expenses. “I was relying on the oranges to make money,” Becerra said. “I’m going to lose.” Becerra is among hundreds of Ventura County farmers who will make little or nothing from their crops this year. Overproduction, overlapping crops, weather conditions and competing markets across the globe are among the reasons why Ventura County growers are being forced to seek alternative ways to unload the excess, said David Buettner, chief deputy agricultural commissioner for the Ventura County Agricultural Commissioner’s Office. “It’s a huge impact on many of them,” Buettner said. “If you have years like this where you have deep losses, marginal profits for the next year may not be enough to bring them up to a point of profitability. Those people who may be having difficulty now in making ends meet may find it more difficult to stay in business.” In Ventura County alone there are roughly 13,300 acres of Valencia oranges and about 1,100 acres of navel oranges, according to the Ventura County Agricultural Commissioner’s annual crop report. Because this is the middle of the season, it is unsure at this point how many millions of dollars will be lost in orange sales, said Claire Peters, spokeswoman for Sunkist Growers. “All I can say is that it’s not going to be a good year,” she said. The Valencia is a summer fruit, and the navel is a winter fruit. Navels typically come in December, January and February, with the Valencia coming in around April and growing through the summer. The current problem stems from late navels, caused by last year’s weather conditions. The navels are holding longer, thus competing with the beginning of the Valencias. “If you look at consumers’ choice, they’ll pick navel over Valencia,” said Nick Sakovich, a farm advisor who specializes in citrus research and education for the University of California Cooperative Extension. Competing markets, too, are compounding the problem. “There’s just a large supply of oranges worldwide,” said Peters, who pointed out that Australia is also producing a large amount of navel oranges for eager consumers. “There’s a lot of competition now that didn’t used to be there.” Summertime is also a huge season for fruit in general. Melons, plums, peaches, pears and other soft fruit are bountiful at this time of year. “You’ve got a wide array of summer fruits to choose from, in addition to oranges,” Peters said. “(Though it may be bad for orange growers), it’s good for the consumer because they’ve got a much wider variety of choices.” So, how are orange growers going to deal with losing money this year? “There’s no obvious good answer,” Sakovich said. There are a lot of things farmers may try, such as growing alternative crops like mandarins. Blood oranges or hybrid grapefruits may also generate some money to help make up for the loss of orange revenues this year. Experts in the industry are looking at alternative marketing techniques. Finding new distribution outlets to sell the oranges may also help, such as farmers markets, roadside stands or mail order. “Whatever it takes,” Sakovich said. There’s also the problem of flourishing fruit trees. Oranges cannot stay on the tree for too long because they sap energy needed for future crops. That leaves many farmers with the problem of harvesting the fruit. They can hire pickers, but that costs money they don’t have. Farmers can offer the fruit to the public for free, but then they are faced with liability problems if someone is injured while picking. Allowing the public to harvest free oranges is also risky because they can damage branches by picking the fruit incorrectly, or step on root rot and then spread the disease to other trees. “It’s a bad situation,” Sakovich said.