USDA Allows Temporary Curb on Flow of Oranges

California’s navel orange industry on Wednesday got what it asked for earlier this week--federal approval to limit the flow of fresh oranges to market for the week starting Friday and running through Thanksgiving.

It will mark the first use of shipping quotas this year in a new season that has been marked by sluggish demand and declining prices.

Agriculture Secretary John R. Block accepted a recommendation made Tuesday by the industry-financed Navel Orange Administrative Committee to cap shipments at 1,300 carloads, each of which contains 1,000 37.5-pound boxes of fruit.

Block had rejected an identical request for a 1,300-carload quota last week, and 1,332 carloads eventually were shipped. Growers and packers said at Tuesday’s meeting that this total would have been much larger--as much as 2,000 carloads--except for several days of rain that halted harvesting.

The Agriculture Department apparently agreed with the industry’s concern that, with the Central California crop rapidly ripening, growers might flood the market as each seeks to profit from the traditional prime holiday sales season. That could depress prices at the time of year when they are generally the highest of the year. These already are running about $1.50 a carton below last season’s average, according to Billy J. Peightal, the committee manager.

Block sent two aides to meet with California growers and shippers this week to attend Tuesday’s committee meeting. One of these, Joseph Gribbin, new director of USDA’s fruit and vegetable division, said they accepted the validity of the committee’s concern that uncertainty over the department’s view of how and when to invoke weekly shipping quotas--called the “prorate” in the trade--has contributed to uncertainty in the marketplace. This uncertainty has contributed to what has been so far a generally lackluster and drifting market for the fruit, committee members told the USDA envoys.

“What I heard coming through,” Gribbin said, “was that (invoking) prorate would contribute to a stability of expectations among growers, handlers and the field buyers for the (retailing) chains.” That stability, he said, should help market a crop whose quality has been improving weekly by drawing promotional commitments for the holiday season from major retailers.

The committee still awaits a response by Block to its preseason marketing policy statement. Gribbin, who assumed his duties just three weeks ago, acknowledged that the delay stemmed from his desire to scrutinize that document’s reasoning himself--a job that was only completed last week after the committee’s recommendation was received. The department declined to invoke prorate before it completed its review of Gribbin’s staff analysis.

Gribbin said last week that the department figured that the likelihood of rain sufficiently reduced the risk of sending too much fruit to market without prorate, giving Block time to complete his review of prorate policy and approve this week’s request.

Block’s decision Wednesday to invoke a quota--which is prorated among shippers according to how much of the district’s tree crop that their growers control--was consistent with the staff’s analysis, Gribbin said.