Growers Ask U.S. to Limit Navel Orange Shipments

Citing weak consumer demand and rock-bottom prices, California’s orange growers asked Agriculture Secretary John R. Block on Tuesday to limit the flow of fresh navel oranges to retail markets for the week beginning midnight Thursday. It is the first time this season that the growers have sought such a limit.

Block has until midnight Thursday to approve or reject the recommendation from the Navel Orange Administrative Committee, an 11-member panel of growers and packers that administers the federal “marketing order.”

The marketing order monitors the flow of fresh fruit to market by establishing a a weekly quota among packers in an effort to keep prices and stocks steady. This practice is called “prorate,” which a minority of mostly large, independent growers consider an anachronistic and unnecessary restraint on trade.

The request could bring into focus a larger issue, since Block has yet to endorse the committee’s recommended prorate schedule for the entire season.

Some committee members at Tuesday’s meeting in the Tulare County town of Lindsay suggested that the committee vote might force Block to take action on its overall proposed prorate policy as well as the new week’s quota. Block had been expected to approve the season’s marketing strategy earlier this month, before the first navels started moving to market.

Block’s office has said that the issue is still under review and that it expects a ruling soon.

For the last six weeks of the Valencia orange season now ending, and thus far into the beginning of the navel season, fruit has flowed to market without restriction. But the longer than usual Valencia season has put the two species into rare competition in the retail market.

Growers have some flexibility in picking their crops, since fresh oranges can be “stored” on the tree for several months.

The committee recommended limiting the flow of fresh oranges for the week starting Nov. 15 to 1,300 carloads, each carload containing 1,000 40-pound boxes. This is 300 carloads more than the committee had originally scheduled, a spokesman noted, but remains about one-tenth of the weekly flow at the seasonal peak.