It is no secret that the Texas citrus industry has been shrinking over the past couple of decades as decreased acreage and consolidation has led to a smaller industry with fewer players.

Lone Star Citrus Growers, headquartered in Mission, TX, is on a trajectory headed in the opposite direction. Vice President of Sales Trent Bishop, one of the founders of the firm in 2007, said that when the company opened its doors it was the first new shipper built from the ground up in Texas in 50 years. More consolidation followed and today Lone Star is one of only three Texas citrus shippers still operating in South Texas.

And they are thriving. “I am very bullish on Texas citrus,” said Bishop.

It was true a generation ago and it is true today: Texas citrus industry has always touted the flavor of the fruit it sells. Bishop said Texas citrus has always enjoyed a premium position in the marketplace because of its flavor. “We know the per capita consumption of grapefruit is slowly declining but that’s not true for Texas grapefruit. We’re still seeing growth.”

And he said that is also true with the Texas orange, which appears to have had a resurgence in recent years. “Oranges are definitely part of the mix. Texas oranges only represent about 25 percent of our citrus volume but we’re looking to increase that and make it a bigger part of the mix.”

Through its own increased plantings, as well as additional plantings from its core growers and the establishment of new marketing agreements with additional growers, Lone Star is in a growth mode. Bishop did not want to disclose growth figures, but he said the business plan calls for continuing to plant new acres over the next several years, with oranges playing a huge role in that growth. “Texas grows an incredibly sweet orange,” he said. “Whether it is used for eating, juicing or in recipes, we have a very tasty orange and sales have been growing.”

He added that some of the disease problems in Florida, plus California’s well-publicized drought has caused some buyers to look elsewhere for oranges and Texas shippers are capitalizing on those opportunities.

Bishop said the 2013-14 season “was very good for us. We continued to grow our business as we got great support from our customer base.”

As he was being interviewed on the second day of September, the longtime Texas citrus veteran was looking forward to an equally successful 2014-15. “We had a good rain three days ago and if we can get a couple of more good rains in September, we’ll be alright. We always say that the August and September rains can make us or break us, and it’s looking pretty good this year.”

Bishop said “the crop hanging on the tree looks good. One or two more rains to get us into October and we will do well.”

He said by mid-September the field crew will start checking for maturity as it eyes an early October start for the deal.

While the vast majority of the citrus represented by Lone Star is grown in the Lone Star State, Bishop said the firm did experiment with some Mexican Valencia oranges this past summer and has also dipped its toe into the pond of Mexican lemons.

Both crops offer a bit of diversity for the firm and allow it to have some product for its core customers during some citrus transition periods. Bishop believes the Mexican citrus deal will continue to increase slowly.

He said the California freeze of close to a decade ago opened the door for Mexico and growers south of the border have been slowly increasing their supplies over the past half dozen years. Of course, the Mexican oranges have to be fumigated but Bishop said there is interest and growth in the deal on both sides of the border.