Futures hot on chill

Press, 28 December 1989, Page 19

Futures hot on chill

NZPA-Reuter Lakeland Frozen orange juice prices soared on Tuesday (early yesterday, N.Z. time) after record low temperatures descended over Florida, smothering fragile fruit with frost and causing damage that may cost farmers one orange in five.

In the Florida citrus groves, growers battled to save their crops and tackled a new problem — labour shortages. The January orange juice fut ures contract at the New York Cotton Exchange closed at USl6.lOc a pound (0.45 c kg) higher at U5153.10c, and all other contracts closed up the 5c daily limit. “It’s an alarming situation,” said Mr Doyle Conner, Florida’s commissioner of agriculture.

The state accounts for about 80 per cent of United States citrus production. “It’s early, and any freeze before Christmas catches a high percentage of the crops unharvested.” There is also a shortage of workers urgently needed to rush fruit to processing plants before it spoils. “We’re going to need all the workers we can get,” said a spokesman for Florida Citrus Mutual, which represents about 12,000 growers. Only 20 per cent of this year's SUS3.S billion (SNZS.9B) crop has been harvested. This year’s freeze follows big chills in 1983 and 1985 that killed more than 80,000 ha of citrus trees and cost the industry more than SUS2B (SNZ3.4B).