Company Sours on Florida Citrus - Dr Robert Kryger

A firm that's been part of Florida's citrus industry for the better part of a century, ALICO, says it's going to "wind down" citrus operations. Crop output has been devastated by greening disease and hurricanes. We speak with Dr. Robert Kryger, Ph D, with Florida Polytechnic University in Lakeland, about the impact of that move. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Gordon Bird here with Beyond the News, and there's some
big news coming out about Florida's iconic citrus industry. One
of the players in that industry, Aliko, a company that
has grown citrus in our state for about a century,
says it's winding down that operation and switching to other
crops and to development. We're bringing in an expert now
to talk about what that means for the beleaguered citrus field.

(00:21):
We're speaking with doctor Robert Kreger, who is an adjunct
professor at Florida Polytechnic University in Lakeland. He has combined
his physics background with several startup companies and entrepreneurial experience,
many of them focused on the beverage industry. Doctor Kreiger,
welcome to Beyond the News.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Thank you for the invitation to be here today.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Now we're speaking to you just a couple of hours
after Aliko, a company based in Fort Myers that has
some fifty thousand acres that it owns says it's phasing
out citrus farming to concentrate on other crops and in
some cases, on developing that land. They pointed in their
release they're a publicly traded company to hurricanes irma Ian

(01:02):
and Milton and their effect on citrus and on the
ongoing struggle with citrus greening disease. How much weight would
you give to those factors versus the possibilities for growing
other crops and for developing that land.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
So this is certainly big news for the Florida citrus industry,
and it's Alico has been involved in citrus for such
a long time. It's definitely a signpost of things. I
think that the fact that the role that citrus greening

(01:40):
is playing here really is huge. Hurricanes is a secondary issue.
The trees are particularly sensitive to the hurricanes because of
greening in particular. And that greening hit in the early
came to the United States in any case, to Florida
in the early two thousands, and I can't remember the

(02:02):
exact time, but perhaps four or five years after it arrived,
the USDA and the Florida economists who study citrus did
a projection about what effect it might have on the industry,
and they did. They came up with three three projections
sort of the best case scenario, a mid case scenario,

(02:22):
and a worst case scenario. And despite all the efforts
and research, that's been done, the actual outcome for the
industry has been worse than the worst worst case scenario
that was predicted. Really has been difficult.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
And of course that company has a heritage going back
a century. It was once run by a man named
Ben Hill Griffin, whose name you would immediately recognize if
you follow college football er, if you ever lived in
frost Proof. How much of a watershed event is this
in the ongoing story of the decline of.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
Citrus, Well, I think it's all with tragic to see
change and change, especially for a company with such a
long involvement, and I in fact, it just completed A
hundred year history of the Florida citrus industry was published
this year, and that company and Ben Hill Griffith and

(03:13):
his family obviously played a big role in the growing
of citrus. But I think that but who owns the
groves and who does the growing is kind of a
secondary issue to the industry. The fact that these groves
will go out of out of citrus production will obviously
have an effect here in Florida. But citrus is a

(03:37):
worldwide industry. It's grown all around the globe, and Florida
processors utilize citrus from around the world. So I think
for people who enjoy orange juice and products that are
made from citrus flavors and so forth, it's not going
to be any obvious change in the near term.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
What does this mean for the rest of the citrus
industry and Florida as well as the businesses that are
involved in processing citrus or provide other services to the
citrus industry. There are, of course a lot of them,
and a lot of them are centered not far from
where you are.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
Yes, and as I've sort of alluded to, most of
these businesses have been adjusting over the last twenty years
to the fact that in order to get enough citrus
raw material, essentially, whether it's juice or products derived from
the oils or peels or essences, they've had to supplement

(04:34):
Florida's production with materials produced in Brazil, Mexico, South America,
South Africa, and other places in the world. And that's
certainly a trend that's going to continue. I think it's
It certainly has an effect on Florida's industries that that
citrus has not grown here. It has an effect on

(04:57):
workers and people who work in the grove and so forth.
But as far as what consumers will see from that effect.
I think it will be somewhat subdued, and hopefully were
investing as an industry a lot of money in coming
up with solutions to citrus screening, and perhaps that will

(05:19):
help the industry come back in Florida.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
Just to note from the release, they're projecting as many
as one hundred and seventy two jobs will be lost
by that move, so certainly effect on an effect on
those people and those situations. We're speaking with doctor Robert Kreiger,
an adjunct professor at Florida Polytechnic University in Lakeland, talking
about the impact of the announcement that Aliko will be

(05:45):
phasing out its citrus farming operations in our state. Doctor Kreiger,
thank you very much for joining us on Beyond the News.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
I'm glad to be here. Thank you.