In the 1970’s, the marketing campaign to sell Florida oranges had a catchy tune about Florida oranges and Florida sunshine. Given the fewer hours of sunshine in the northern part of the US, a drop of Florida sunshine was needed, as well as Florida sunshine made the cold winters better. There are many other areas of the world which grow oranges including California and South Africa, but Florida oranges were being sold to the northeast consumers.

In an article by Kate Helmore of Reuters, the notion of buying Florida oranges is beginning to drop off. In 2004, Florida exported 240 million 90-pound boxes of oranges annually. This year the number has fallen to 16 million boxes. The reason for the decline is a disease called huanglongbing or citrus greening.

The Asian psyllid carries the bacteria when the bug eats the leaves of the tree. The bacteria chokes the flow of sugar and minerals in the phloem, the vein that transports nutrients. In humans it is similar to plaque building up in the veins which restrict blood. Effectively the tree is being starved of nutrients. The problem is the symptoms look like routine nutritional deficiencies, but in 8 to 10 years the trees stop producing fruit and die. A healthy tree can live for 50 years.

Citrus greening is a worldwide problem, Brazil the global leader in orange juice production in facing record low inventory according to CitrusBB, the leading industry group. The disease has affected groves in Texas and California.

In Florida, there are also problems with hurricanes which uproots millions of trees or left the groves underwater. According to the Department of Citrus, Florida lost $247 million in the last hurricane.

If you think about Florida, you think about sunshine and people want to live in the Orlando area where most of the orange grooves are to be found. The price of land in Florida in Orange County has increased from $181.7 billion in 2022 to $203.8 billion in 2023 according to the newspaper Orlando Sentinel.

In 1996, 800,000 acres were given to oranges and grapefruits, in 2022 the inventory was 375,000 acres. In 2012, the value of the orange crop was $1 billion, now it is $358 million.

The industry employs 33,000 people and provides an economic impact of $6.9 billion including $150 million in state tax.

Researchers at the US Department of Agriculture and the University of Florida and others are working to fight the citrus greening.

One solution is feeding smaller amounts of fertilizer as the tree can absorb smaller amounts over a longer period of time. As well as using the orange tree to develop genes to be more disease resistant, however that is long-term solution.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, marketing will only ensure the sales go but that is not a long-term solution. Sustainable products for the long term are necessary and if you invest in companies that offer solutions over the long term then they can produce profits over the long-term which can pay dividends to your over the long-term and no matter where the orange juice comes from you can afford it.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.