Entering its seventh season, Lone Star Citrus Growers of Mission, TX, continues to grow and innovate. Recent additions in the packinghouse and improvements in procedure will make the company even stronger and more efficient, said partner and Vice President of Sales Trent Bishop.

“We’re a growing company,” Bishop said. “We’re investing in new technology and opening up another production component in the packing plant, all automated. We’re adding a new bagger and we’ve also brought in two soft-touch packing machines that will bulk-pack grapefruit and oranges. With our expected growth this year we needed to make sure we had the added production capacity to keep up so we’ve reinvested in some equipment to increase our production.”

Jud Flowers, Trent Bishop and T.J. Flowers had been working together in various combinations for about a half-dozen years when they branched off and opened Lone Star Citrus Growers in 2007. Jud Flowers had been in the business more than 25 years at that point; and Bishop had 15 years with other companies in the Rio Grande Valley at that point.

Lone Star Citrus Growers farms its own citrus groves and also works with other grower-partners. Aside from the groves that the company owns that are already in production, they have also stagger-planted each year. “We will grow exponentially by the year as more and more groves come into production,” Bishop said. “Meanwhile, we’ve also managed to forge expanded partnerships with some of our large, independent growers that will also increase volume.”

Lone Star also recently reached the holy grail of the Produce Traceability Initiative, item-level traceability via print-and-apply PLU labels with the company’s unique GTIN information.

And a spanking new website and logo will help Lone Star better position itself from an image standpoint — and serve as an informational source for customers and consumers.

“We wanted to make sure we were keeping our image relevant. We wanted to make sure our website is informative and drive traffic with content about our company as well as information about our industry,” Bishop said. “It’s our intention going forward to do a series of videos that will educate the citrus buying public with exactly what goes into the process of harvesting, packing and shipping Texas citrus. Over time, we want this website to be a true resource for anybody who wants to know anything about Texas citrus.”

Lone Star has managed to continue its growth phase despite three years of drought in Texas.

“Even though we still find ourselves in the midst of a historical drought, we have had some timely and widespread rains that have been just enough to cover most all of the acreage over the last 60 days — some areas have actually received several rains. That is always welcome in the heat of the South Texas summer,” Bishop said.

“For people that might not understand, South Texas agriculture is irrigated from the water of two reservoirs on the Rio Grande River. Those reservoirs are still at conservation levels, they’re extremely low. But when we get some of these timely rains we can save some of those irrigations that we would otherwise pull out of those reservoirs for later use. Any time you can get a bonus from Mother Nature, it’s a good thing,” Bishop said. “Water is a bigger issue in Texas than most people realize. On everything that’s company owned, we have installed micro-jet irrigation. This is just one way that we are doing our part to make sure we spread our water allocations as far as they can go. We have a very clear-cut water plan in place to make sure that we’re planning for the future as far out as we can. We realize that in order to have next year’s crop, we have to have water for next year’s crop. As such, there are already plans in place to make sure not only that we have a crop this year but that we’ve got a crop next year as well.”

Water is not the only potential threat to Texas citrus. In January 2012, HLB — citrus greening disease — was discovered in a couple of trees in a single Rio Grande Valley grove. Coordinated spraying for the Asian citrus psyllid that carries the disease — a practice that has helped Florida citrus growers battle the pest to a temporary draw — has since kept it at bay. There have been no new incidents reported since the original finding — remarkable given the fact that, unchecked, HLB can destroy a grove in two years.

“We have learned a lot from our friends in Florida. We realized by watching the situation in Florida unfold how severe an impact it can have on an industry,” Bishop said. “Even though we would never wish that on anybody, we certainly went to school and immediately put forth a plan to monitor and prevent as much of it as we could. I’d like to think that having only that one breakout is a result of that early planning, monitoring and detection.”

“The fact that we are inspecting more than ever and have not had another occurrence in a year and a half should be a testament to the programs that we have in place. I am very grateful for the professionals within the Texas A&M University system and our industry in general who are out there daily monitoring and educating the public. Their results are speaking for themselves. That’s not to say we’re in the clear by any means, but the fact that they have been able to fend it off and combat it like they have is a true testament to their hard work and expertise.”

Last year, Lone Star opened its facilities to outside cross-docking and cold storage and that business has grown as well.

“We are doing some offseason cold storage with one partner and it’s actually going to feed into a year-round program,” Bishop said. “That should lead to the potential of us being an attractive consolidation pick up point for our mutual customers to load in one spot. We have plenty of room to take on more cross-docking and cold storage business.”

Lone Star Citrus Growers takes pride in their role of adding value to the citrus category.

“We are growers of arguably some of the best tasting citrus in the world. We are very proud of that. We are also proud of the grower-partners we represent,” Bishop said. “When we opened the door seven years ago, we took very seriously our role of contributing to the growth and consumption of Texas citrus. By remaining engaged in all aspects of the industry, and providing a viable supply solution for our customers to count on, I would like to think we are doing our part. ”

Mission accomplished.