Joel Nelsen, President of California Citrus Mutual, explained, "It looks bad because of the different farming practices or frost defense mechanisms they employ."
Florida's climate prevents wind machines from warming groves like they do in the Valley.
Nelsen said, "They believe their best defense against frost damage internally is to create a protective shield around the fruit itself because they go to juice. If we did that we'd have a tremendous amount of what we call ice marking." Ice marking lowers the quality of the fruit.
Nelsen said 90-percent of Florida's citrus goes to the juice market. 90-percent of the oranges grown in the Valley goes to the fresh fruit market. Consumers peel them and eat them.
The Sunkist packing house in Exeter was running at full tilt 12 hours a day. Oranges are packed and then shipped around the globe.
Nelsen said California and Florida don't compete in the same distribution market. Nelsen said, "There's a common misbelief out there that one man's problem in the citrus industry becomes another man's revenue."
But Nelsen said you may notice a temporary spike in orange prices because of Florida's cold spell. He added, "There'll be that knee-jerk reaction in the short term when all of a sudden if a carton of oranges sold at 10 dollars will go up to 15 dollars, that'll get passed on to the consumer but in a week to 10 days that all comes back to the water level when people realize the amount of fresh supplies hasn't been interrupted."
Nelsen said Valley growers though could benefit if the Florida grapefruit crop sustains major damage.
