The Florida citrus-growing community has suffered mixed fortunes in the last month following the successive hammerings by hurricanes Charley and Frances, and now possibly Ivan.
Three weeks after Charley pounded the Gulf coast in the US’s Sunshine State, Frances smashed into the east coast, devastating orchards, homes and livelihoods of many citrus growers. Damage assessments are ongoing and preliminary estimates indicate that Florida citrus growers have sustained over $200 million in damage from hurricane Frances.
This damage comes hot on the heeels of an estimated $285m in economic loss for citrus growers due to hurricane Charley. “This is a second massive hit to Florida citrus growers as a high percentage of both the orange and grapefruit crop have suffered losses during these storms,” says Andy LaVigne, executive vice president/ceo of Florida Citrus Mutual.
Unfortunately, the industry’s anxiety had not subsided as hurricane Ivan moved toward the state. “Ivan looks to be headed towards the southwest Florida citrus producing region, which has not suffered significant storm damage to date,” says LaVigne, “and we are watching Ivan’s path closely, working with growers and state and federal officials to prepare for the storm.”
Florida Citrus Mutual is the state’s largest citrus grower organisation with more than 11,000 members. The Florida citrus industry provides $9.1 billion annual economic impact to the state and employs 90,000 people.
Despite this season’s harvest suffering significant damage, consumers will not see an immediate impact. “We appreciate the concern we have received from the general public for the welfare of Florida citrus growers,” LaVigne says. “The best thing people can do to help is to continue drinking orange juice and consuming Florida citrus everyday.”
The Florida Department of Citrus (FDC) says the citrus growing counties were the hardest hit - St Lucia, Indian River and Palm Beach. Together these counties account for approximately 200,000 acres of Florida’s citrus production including 80,000 acres of grapefruit which represents 73 per cent of the total grapefruit production, and 112,000 acres of oranges, 17 per cent of the orange production. Spokesman from FDC, Andrew Meadows, says: “Although it is too early to know the exact damage at this point, we know a lot of this year’s orange and grapefruit crops have been lost because of the storms.” The FDOC, responsible for promoting, researching and regulating the Florida citrus sector, is working with US federal and industry associations to take the required steps to help rebuild the state’s primary industry.
The Cuban citrus market has suffered a series of weather-related misfortunes over the past few years and is still recovering from Charley’s rage. Damage done to citrus crops in Cuba after hurricane Michelle in 2001 caused extensive losses in the western-central province of Matanzas and in the southern area of the province around Jaguey Grande. The citrus sector has finally recovered from the damage caused to orchards and was expecting a good season in 2004.
Last month Charley battered western Cuba and one of the country’s major grapefruit exporters, Citricos Caribe SA, had its production in the north and south west of the island destroyed. According to Fesa UK’s sales manager, Colin Blake, production in the Sabre region has been wiped out.
“Citricos Caribe has no fruit. Grupo BN’s production on islands off the Cuban coast was safe, leaving the group as the major grapefruit exporter this season. However, the orange crop has been unaffected by the weather,” he says, “though producers were nervous about hurricane Ivan causing problems.”
Ivan, classed as one of the fiercest storms recorded in the region and travelling at an average speed of 125 miles per hour, skirted around Cuba’s western tip. Though it still pounded the tobacco-growing province of Pinar del Rio at 160mph but spared the citrus growing regions. The main importer of Cuban grapefruit in the UK is Hart & Friedmann, part of the Fyffes group. Salesman Alan Pearson says that they were really nervous with the threat of Ivan. “This is a season of pathos and sadness, not projection and happiness. This season, forget about expectations - we need to put this all into perspective and think of the human cost. We are glad this phase is over.
“The hurricanes have had some affect on the local production though not catastrophic - nature has been kind to us with the damage considerably less than expected, and in comparison to Florida. With Frances and Charley, the north and south west regions were damaged; then we heard about the threat from Ivan.”
Pearson says there will be a Cuban grapefruit season over the next six weeks with the first shipments arriving in the UK on September 23. “The first vessel was delayed and departed on September 9 containing 1,500 pallets of red grapefruit destined for the UK and European markets. The second vessel was due to depart this week but as we’ve seen, Mother Nature can make a significant difference. The emergence of hurricane Ivan impacted on the departure of the second shipment, which will now depart in the third week of September, also carrying 1,500 pallets of red grapefruit.”
The Cuban citrus season had shown good potential prior to the storms, with grapefruit yields up on last year though fruit is smaller. “Volumes will be down because of the climate during the growing season and now the hurricanes. Tropical oranges appear to be negatively affected as well but are still on track to arrive in the UK in January. A recent visit to Cuba by some of our team to inspect the fruit indicated that the oranges had excellent colour and quality,” says Pearson.
“The fruit presentation is also excellent as progress has been made in packaging. The fruit is smaller this season but the good news is that quality is consistent.” But he remains weary about the season at the time of writing: “There is another hurricane gathering momentum at 40mph in that region. This season bears no resemblance to any other.”
Jamaica has been hard hit by Ivan’s force with 98 per cent of the island without power and 40 roads blocked by debris. Banana production is the island’s second largest export industry worth $25.5m annually. The sector has already experienced difficult growing conditions in recent years due to floods and drought which resulted in a decrease in plantings, production and exports. Hurricane Ivan’s eye swept across the island on Saturday at speeds of 150mph. At the time of writing, communication with the island was still down, making it difficult to gain access to plantations to assess damage.
JP Fruit’s group marketing manager, Dicken Poole, says it is too early to estimate the full scale of the damage on the banana production though local management has done an initial aerial assessment. Early estimates indicate that both the group’s banana plantations - one of 1, 700 acres and another of 1,200 acres in the eastern province of St Marys - have been totally flattened and will be out of action for the next six months. “Our Jamaican producers are gauging the damage and overall situation, measuring how to best reinstate the plantations and refurbish. We still don’t know how many packhouses have been hit - this all takes time with the roads flooded and communication systems down, making it very difficult.
“JP UK will be meeting the shortfalls in supply however - we had a contingency plan in place to ensure all our obligations to UK supermarkets are met. We have sourced bananas from Costa Rica, Cameroon and the Dominican Republic. Supplies were put on-board and shipped to the UK in anticipation of damage to the Jamaican plantations.”
Poole says that banana prices will remain unchanged, despite the loss in banana volumes, as the majority of banana trading with the supermarkets are fixed one-year agreements. “We are still suffering from 30 per cent deflation in banana prices - prices are at the same levels as they were 10 years ago.”
Local government reports from the Windward islands estimate $3.7 million damage to the banana industry, as 30 per cent of the plantations have been destroyed in St Lucia, and 20 per cent of plantations in St Vincent and the Grenadines.
Grenada was the hardest hit by Ivan but for Windward Bananas, only one per cent of its total banana production is based on the island. “We have small farms across the four islands - St Lucia, Grenada, St Vincent and Dominica,” says sales and marketing director, Roy Hugh. “Luckily, the damage from Ivan is not as bad we initially thought. Most of our production is based on St Lucia and Dominica, which were affected by tear winds. On St Lucia some of the farms were hit by very strong currents of wind that took out sections of farms but left the rest unaffected.”
Windward Bananas has a full team assessing the local damage caused by Ivan and will have a clearer picture by the third week in September. “Shipping has not been impacted by the storms and are only one day behind schedule, carrying 100,000 boxes for the UK market. All the farms were harvested before the hurricane passed through and as far as we know, there has been no damage to any of the packhouses.” With respect to prices, Hugh says that despite Jamaican production being wiped out, the UK market is already oversupplied with bananas and he doubts that prices will be impacted at all by these events.
“As with all natural disasters of this magnitude, it will be some weeks before the full extent of the damage from hurricane Frances is determined,” says Lee Boulding from US company DNE Sales International, “but it is certain that the final picture regarding the grapefruit crop will not be good.
“With winds of 160-170kph, the storm was not the strongest in history, but it was one of the largest and slowest moving, which meant a very large part of Florida received hurricane force winds for as much as 20 hours. The eye of the storm directly hit the main grapefruit growing areas of Vero Beach and Fort Pierce, where approximately two thirds of Florida’s grapefruit production is based,” he says.
Boulding explains that luckily the majority of trees were not uprooted but many were defoliated, and a considerable proportion of the fruit was knocked to the ground. “As is normal, additional fruit will fall during the coming days. Prior to hurricane Frances, Florida’s industry had expected a normal start to the season, in the first week of October, and this may still be the case. In these next two-three weeks, we will closely monitor the situation, and make a plan to salvage what remains of the crop and season.”
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will lend an undefined amount of funds to the hurricane-hit Caribbean countries says IMF managing director Rodrigo de Rato. He says: “The IMF will be in close contact with the concerned countries and other financial institutions with a view to supporting these efforts.”
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Atlantic hurricane season lasts from June 1 to November 30, with the most active period between August and October.
Florida and Caribbean fruit producers are now dealing with the aftermath of three successive heavy storms in one season - Ivan was the third major hurricane in less than a month after Charley and Frances. Both the citrus and banana industries are replanting and rebuilding facilities while assessing the financial costs to their businesses and sectors - let’s hope Mother Nature is kinder in the coming months.
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