World price rise cheers citrus growers

It has been a while since we heard good news from the citrus industry, but while sugar and bananas have been dominating the economic headlines, Belize’s citrus growers have been quietly watching their assets grow. With poor production in Florida and disease cutting into Brazilian production, world citrus prices have rebounded to the point where today growers cashed cheques for their third payment amounting to ninety-nine cents per box for grapefruit and a dollar-thirteen for oranges. This brings the total per box price to four seventy-four and five eighty-eight respectively, an increase of seventeen percent for grapefruit and a whopping thirty-four percent for oranges over last year’s prices. According to Bridget Cullerton of the Citrus Growers Association, the improved prices are expected to stay in place for a while and the C.G.A. is urging its members to improve their agricultural practices in order to increase the industry’s traditionally low yields. After a record seven million box crop in 2000/2001, production plummeted to five point three million boxes last year. Unofficial predictions for the crop due to open next month look toward a respectable harvest of just over six million boxes. The improved outlook comes as final details are being worked out for the buy out of the processing company Del Oro by the C.G.A..

It has been a while since we heard good news from the citrus industry, but while sugar and bananas have been dominating the economic headlines, Belize’s citrus growers have been quietly watching their assets grow. With poor production in Florida and disease cutting into Brazilian production, world citrus prices have rebounded to the point where today growers cashed cheques for their third payment amounting to ninety-nine cents per box for grapefruit and a dollar-thirteen for oranges. This brings the total per box price to four seventy-four and five eighty-eight respectively, an increase of seventeen percent for grapefruit and a whopping thirty-four percent for oranges over last year’s prices. According to Bridget Cullerton of the Citrus Growers Association, the improved prices are expected to stay in place for a while and the C.G.A. is urging its members to improve their agricultural practices in order to increase the industry’s traditionally low yields. After a record seven million box crop in 2000/2001, production plummeted to five point three million boxes last year. Unofficial predictions for the crop due to open next month look toward a respectable harvest of just over six million boxes. The improved outlook comes as final details are being worked out for the buy out of the processing company Del Oro by the C.G.A..