California frost sours citrus prices

With the estimated $1 billion loss to the California citrus industry, consumers across the country can anticipate paying double or even triple the price for the oranges, lemons and other citrus fruits they buy.

According to the California Farm Bureau, California ranks first in the production of fresh citrus across the country, growing about 86 percent of the lemons and 21 percent of the oranges sold. While Florida produces more citrus than California overall, most of its crop goes into juices and will play a minor role as far as the availability of fresh fruit.

Columbia grocers and eateries will feel the damage soon, if they haven’t already. Hy-Vee has a citrus sale going on at all its stores and will continue to honor the sale price until its scheduled end on Tuesday. But after the sale, the store expects to charge a significantly higher price for fresh citrus.

Chris Friefleben, a spokeswoman at Hy-Vee’s headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa, said Friday that the company has already purchased the next round of produce for its warehouses, and prices were considerably higher.

“Earlier this week, our produce specialist told me he paid three times more for oranges than he did the last time,” Friefleben said.

And prices in the stores will likely remain high for a while. Citrus supply is very limited, along with other heavily damaged crops, such as strawberries and avocados, and this will keep produce prices up. Friefleben said the crop is almost wiped out for this particular growing season, and grocers probably won’t see any price relief until the next round of crops.

“Spring will be the next production season, and barring more bad weather, we may see prices begin to decline then,” she said.

Barb Mitchell of Columbia picked up a wooden box of clementines Saturday at Schnucks at Forum and Stadium boulevards. She said she will still buy oranges and orange juice for her family after the price of citrus increases.

“Citrus is really important to our diet,” Mitchell said.

She doesn’t plan to substitute other drinks such as milk for orange juice.

This isn’t the first time a winter freeze has caused citrus loss, but it’s definitely one of the worst cases both producers and food distributors have had to deal with. Tim Lugar, produce manager for Hy-Vee in Columbia, said this instance is different.

“We’ve dealt with situations like this before, but I don’t think it’s ever been this bad,” he said. In fact, producers are expecting a 75 percent to 80 percent loss in their total citrus crop.

Other area grocers, including Schnucks, aren’t showing the impact of the shortage yet. Schnucks has California oranges priced at three for $1 until its sale ends today.

The exact prices for fresh citrus will remain unknown until the extent of the damage is determined. Five nights of sub-freezing temperatures in California over the past week have growers still counting their losses. When total crop losses are assessed, businesses will have a better idea of the total price increase and how long it will last. Future weather patterns will be a key factor in determining total shortage and damage for this growing season.

The anticipated shortage in grocery stores might leave other entities out of the foods as well. Don Moore, network food solicitor for the Central Missouri Food Bank, says it’s hard to tell now how the citrus shortage will impact the food bank. He says the food bank carries more orange juice than fresh oranges, for example, due to the “perishable nature of citrus.”

Although the food bank tries to take in foods of high nutritional value, sometimes shortages will keep such foods temporarily out of stock. Shortages in grocery stores would ultimately mean shortages at the food bank.

“Some things aren’t donated consistently,” Moore said. “So if we don’t have any citrus donated, we’ll just have to give up citrus for a while.”

Despite the loss in fresh citrus, some of the frozen fruit can be salvaged for juices. Main Squeeze Natural Foods Cafe in Columbia uses an organic orange juice concentrate for many of its juice products, made mostly from the previous season’s orange crop. Main Squeeze owner Leigh Lockhart said consumers can consider concentrated citrus items as a price-steady alternative when fresh citrus prices increase.

“Sometimes when prices of produce are adjusted, we have to adjust our prices,” Lockhart said, adding that her practice of using locally-grown produce allows her to run her business along with the available market.

“When you run on a local-based menu, the only problem you may run into here is drought,” she said.

For example, Lockhart said, she prevented shortages and price hikes during the E. coli spinach crisis several months ago by using locally grown produce that was never in contact with the contaminated spinach at the big distribution facilities.

“There’s always some calamity you have to be prepared for when you work in this business,” she said.

The harsh California weather might hurt more than consumers; it could mean several months of unemployment for thousands of farm workers, packers and truck drivers in the citrus industry.

The Associated Press contributed some of the information for this story.

PAM COHEN contributed to this story.