California citrus industry lauded for maintaining post-freeze quality
California citrus industry lauded for maintaining post-freeze quality
VISALIA, CA -- In the wake of a prolonged and widespread freeze in January that devastated an estimated 70 percent of the remaining California winter citrus crop still on the trees, the California citrus industry has done an admirable job of protecting its reputation for quality by keeping freeze- damaged fruit off the market, according to several speakers and panelists at California Citrus Mutual's California Citrus Showcase held here on Thursday, March 8.
Even so, the industry and the regulators who are responsible for enforcing relevant protocols are mulling over the prospect of making mandatory some of the protocols that are at present only voluntary, even though they worked well this year on a voluntary basis.
The keynote speaker at the Citrus Showcase luncheon was A.G. Kawamura, secretary of the California Department of Food & Agriculture. In a press conference prior to the luncheon, Mr. Kawamura said that the California citrus industry "recognizes that California quality is their number one sales point. They know that if they have the best quality in the world, they will always have the best marketplace in the world."
Following the January freeze, Mr. Kawamura said that growers voluntarily "put upon themselves the discipline to make sure that frozen, damaged fruit didn't get out into the marketplace. They knew that upholding that quality is something they needed to do. It is something they believed in, something they made happen, and it works."
A workshop held during the day-long event focused on "The freeze: What protocols have worked and what fixes should be considered."
The panel, which was moderated by CCM Director Tom Wollenman, general manger of LoBue Bros., consisted of Terry Orr, general manager of Exeter- Ivanhoe Citrus; Gary Kunkel, agricultural commissioner of Tulare County; David Moore, agricultural commissioner of Kern County; and Dennis Plann, deputy agricultural commissioner of Fresno County.
Mr. Orr said that a significant volume of fruit was harvested in the days prior to (and in anticipation of) the freeze. The inventory of pre-freeze fruit in- house that could be packed and shipped for several days after the freeze, "gave time to evaluate" fruit harvested after the freeze to see whether freeze damage would show up in the fruit before it was shipped. The program "did a pretty good job" of keeping damaged fruit off the market, he said. "We have not had a lot of complaints" about arrivals of the fruit. But he does think that a seven-day holding time is preferable to the currently recommended five days, and he said he would like to see that seven-day hold made mandatory. "I didn't think the voluntary hold works," he said, but "it did this year."
It didn't during prior freezes in 1998 and 1990.
The difference, he explained, was that there was not a lot of market pressure at the time the freeze occurred, such as there was in the 1998 freeze that took place in the midst of the holiday pull.
Although the five-day hold is voluntary, it does have some regulatory teeth, Mr. Moore explained. While the hold itself is voluntary and growers could theoretically ship oranges that showed no damage without waiting five days to see if any damage showed up, it is still a violation of the California ag code to ship fruit that has more than a specified minimum amount of freeze damage - even if that damage has not yet made itself known. Facing that prospect, no one took the risk and everyone complied with the five-day hold, at a minimum. Some held the fruit even longer, just to be sure.
According to Mr. Kunkel, the industry was very cooperative in complying with the protocol. "The industry doesn't want to ship" fruit that might disappoint consumers, he said.
Mr. Plann said that he had heard of only one complaint, from a single supermarket retailer, regarding post-freeze fruit quality. There was more of a problem, however, with some small ethnic markets in Fresno County that had purchased their fruit from peddlers. "We rejected about 85 percent" of the fruit inspected in such markets, he said.
Mr. Kunkel cited one consumer complaint regarding fruit in a Central Valley supermarket. The complaint was investigated and validated, and "we destroyed the fruit," he said.
But the dearth of consumer and retailer complaints this year compared to previous freezes, while it shows that voluntary compliance worked well this year, did not convince any of the panelists that there would not be more problems the next time a devastating freeze occurs, particularly if the freeze is unexpected, leaving growers with no time to pick in advance or if the freeze occurs when there is strong demand for the fruit and therefore pressure to ship.
Most of the panelists said they would support a mandatory hold period -- and perhaps a seven-day rather than a five-day hold -- for fruit harvested post-freeze. They also supported extending the post-freeze protocols to all types of citrus. It currently applies only to oranges. Also discussed was the prospect of a mandatory harvesting moratorium for a certain number of days after a freeze, but the consensus seemed to be opposed to that.
As Mr. Kunkel said, a harvest moratorium would force growers to leave unfrozen fruit on a tree where it would continue to be at risk of getting frozen on subsequent nights even if it had avoided damage on the first night. With a prolonged freeze such as occurred this year, such a requirement would only increase, not decrease, the impact of the freeze, he said.
Mr. Wollenman said that as of mid-February, it appeared that there were about 10 million packable cartons of Navels still on the trees. Since then, about half of that had been packed, but "the last 5 million might be a little challenging," he said.
On March 9, the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service issued a revised crop forecast for the 2007 California citrus crop, lowering the Navel orange forecast to 54 million cartons, down 18 percent from the pre-freeze January estimate. That estimate does not distinguish, however, between fruit that is marketed fresh and fruit that must go to juice because of freeze damage, according to a California Citrus Mutual press release.
On average, growers "will be fortunate to pack 30 percent of the crop remaining on the tree after the freeze," the release stated.
Even so, the industry and the regulators who are responsible for enforcing relevant protocols are mulling over the prospect of making mandatory some of the protocols that are at present only voluntary, even though they worked well this year on a voluntary basis.
The keynote speaker at the Citrus Showcase luncheon was A.G. Kawamura, secretary of the California Department of Food & Agriculture. In a press conference prior to the luncheon, Mr. Kawamura said that the California citrus industry "recognizes that California quality is their number one sales point. They know that if they have the best quality in the world, they will always have the best marketplace in the world."
Following the January freeze, Mr. Kawamura said that growers voluntarily "put upon themselves the discipline to make sure that frozen, damaged fruit didn't get out into the marketplace. They knew that upholding that quality is something they needed to do. It is something they believed in, something they made happen, and it works."
A workshop held during the day-long event focused on "The freeze: What protocols have worked and what fixes should be considered."
The panel, which was moderated by CCM Director Tom Wollenman, general manger of LoBue Bros., consisted of Terry Orr, general manager of Exeter- Ivanhoe Citrus; Gary Kunkel, agricultural commissioner of Tulare County; David Moore, agricultural commissioner of Kern County; and Dennis Plann, deputy agricultural commissioner of Fresno County.
Mr. Orr said that a significant volume of fruit was harvested in the days prior to (and in anticipation of) the freeze. The inventory of pre-freeze fruit in- house that could be packed and shipped for several days after the freeze, "gave time to evaluate" fruit harvested after the freeze to see whether freeze damage would show up in the fruit before it was shipped. The program "did a pretty good job" of keeping damaged fruit off the market, he said. "We have not had a lot of complaints" about arrivals of the fruit. But he does think that a seven-day holding time is preferable to the currently recommended five days, and he said he would like to see that seven-day hold made mandatory. "I didn't think the voluntary hold works," he said, but "it did this year."
It didn't during prior freezes in 1998 and 1990.
The difference, he explained, was that there was not a lot of market pressure at the time the freeze occurred, such as there was in the 1998 freeze that took place in the midst of the holiday pull.
Although the five-day hold is voluntary, it does have some regulatory teeth, Mr. Moore explained. While the hold itself is voluntary and growers could theoretically ship oranges that showed no damage without waiting five days to see if any damage showed up, it is still a violation of the California ag code to ship fruit that has more than a specified minimum amount of freeze damage - even if that damage has not yet made itself known. Facing that prospect, no one took the risk and everyone complied with the five-day hold, at a minimum. Some held the fruit even longer, just to be sure.
According to Mr. Kunkel, the industry was very cooperative in complying with the protocol. "The industry doesn't want to ship" fruit that might disappoint consumers, he said.
Mr. Plann said that he had heard of only one complaint, from a single supermarket retailer, regarding post-freeze fruit quality. There was more of a problem, however, with some small ethnic markets in Fresno County that had purchased their fruit from peddlers. "We rejected about 85 percent" of the fruit inspected in such markets, he said.
Mr. Kunkel cited one consumer complaint regarding fruit in a Central Valley supermarket. The complaint was investigated and validated, and "we destroyed the fruit," he said.
But the dearth of consumer and retailer complaints this year compared to previous freezes, while it shows that voluntary compliance worked well this year, did not convince any of the panelists that there would not be more problems the next time a devastating freeze occurs, particularly if the freeze is unexpected, leaving growers with no time to pick in advance or if the freeze occurs when there is strong demand for the fruit and therefore pressure to ship.
Most of the panelists said they would support a mandatory hold period -- and perhaps a seven-day rather than a five-day hold -- for fruit harvested post-freeze. They also supported extending the post-freeze protocols to all types of citrus. It currently applies only to oranges. Also discussed was the prospect of a mandatory harvesting moratorium for a certain number of days after a freeze, but the consensus seemed to be opposed to that.
As Mr. Kunkel said, a harvest moratorium would force growers to leave unfrozen fruit on a tree where it would continue to be at risk of getting frozen on subsequent nights even if it had avoided damage on the first night. With a prolonged freeze such as occurred this year, such a requirement would only increase, not decrease, the impact of the freeze, he said.
Mr. Wollenman said that as of mid-February, it appeared that there were about 10 million packable cartons of Navels still on the trees. Since then, about half of that had been packed, but "the last 5 million might be a little challenging," he said.
On March 9, the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service issued a revised crop forecast for the 2007 California citrus crop, lowering the Navel orange forecast to 54 million cartons, down 18 percent from the pre-freeze January estimate. That estimate does not distinguish, however, between fruit that is marketed fresh and fruit that must go to juice because of freeze damage, according to a California Citrus Mutual press release.
On average, growers "will be fortunate to pack 30 percent of the crop remaining on the tree after the freeze," the release stated.
