ALTURAS, Fla. — If you’ve ever had a glass of Florida’s Natural orange juice, you may have Christian Spinosa to thank.
The fifth-generation citrus grower in Polk County produces oranges exclusively for the farmer-owned, Lake Wales-based juice company.
Monday afternoon, he perused a block of his Valencia oranges in a quiet grove outside Alturas.
There, tree limbs are loaded with tiny green fruits that will — with proper time and care — grow in size, ripen into their namesake hue, and become next season’s crop.
To Spinosa, they’re little orbs of hope after a current season of distress.
“What words would I use to describe this season?” Spinosa said. “Challenging.”
For years, Florida oranges have been decimated by an insect-spread disease known as citrus greening.
If that problem wasn’t costly enough, last September, Hurricane Ian uprooted citrus trees and stripped millions of dollars worth of fruit from trees along the hurricane’s path. The storm contributed to what’s now considered the smallest Florida citrus harvest in 100 years.
“We were definitely blessed to be able to pick anything,” said Spinosa, who lost about 50% of his crop. “For sure.”
Glenn Beck, a citrus grower whose company — Beck Brothers Citrus — owns groves across Central Florida, also lost roughly half his crop.
“Throughout the whole industry, it has been devastating,” he said. “Anyone left in the business at this point is kind of considered a diehard.”
There is federal funding available that could help growers like Beck and Spinosa, but right now, the necessary mechanism to efficiently disperse the funds does not exist.
“I mean, that’s the most challenging part: having those programs and not being able to use them,” Spinosa said.
Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives did its part to fix that problem by passing a bill that, if it becomes law, would provide many growers aid using existing U.S. Department of Agriculture “block grant” funds.
The bill was sponsored by Rep. Scott Franklin (R-FL) and every other member of Congress who represents Florida.
“We lost 90% of last year’s crop, and even for the trees that we replant now, it’s going to take three to five years for them to bear fruit again, so we need to get this done quickly,” Franklin said. “So now, we just need the Senate to pick up the ball and run with it.”
Spinosa hopes the Senate will act quickly.
Even though he has no plans to walk away from the industry he loves, without federal help, he might have to scale back his total amount of acreage or discontinue care on some of his crops, which would mean fewer Florida oranges for Florida orange juice.
Matt Joyner, the Executive Vice President and CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual, a trade group that represents growers, is optimistic that the “block grant” bill will eventually pass the Senate.
“We’re very hopeful that we can see that bill across the finish line,” Joyner said.
