Citrus Group Marks 100th Anniversary

For more than a century the perfume of orange blossoms has filled the Santa Clara Valley each spring, signaling the time for the annual meeting of the Fillmore-Piru Citrus Assn.

Long ago, citrus growers from miles around rattled down Telegraph Road in buggies and on horseback every March to discuss prices and markets, lament the previous season’s freeze and worry collectively over pests and other problems.

On Friday, their descendants and colleagues on the Oxnard Plain and in the Ojai Valley gathered at the Fillmore Veterans Memorial Building to discuss matters and celebrate the citrus association’s 100th anniversary.

The growers’ cooperative was founded on Feb. 3, 1897.

“The good old days were tough, and we’ve come a long way,” James Schieferle, association president, said before an audience of more than 300 growers, packers and shippers spanning three generations.

“Tough” may be an understatement when describing the cooperative’s long and sometimes turbulent history in the eastern Santa Clara Valley and the spirit of its members.

In the past 100 years, growers have survived a catastrophic dam failure and resulting floods, several earthquakes, devastating freezes, disease outbreaks, fires and the occasional appearance of that pesky medfly.

And the association itself has withstood the splitting up of its members--when Piru growers seceded and started their own cooperative, then reunited with Fillmore 57 years later--as well as strikes and cutthroat competition.

“You’ve survived disputes, divisions and tragedies, but this business has an essential and enduring purpose,” said the event’s keynote speaker, Russell Hanlin, president of Sunkist Growers Inc.

Sunkist, a marketing cooperative formerly known as the California Fruit Exchange, has distributed the bulk of the association’s crop of Valencia and Washington navel oranges since 1899.

While the mood at the usually drab Veterans Memorial Building was decidedly upbeat, an air of caution was also noticeable amid the celebration’s red, white and blue helium-filled balloons, star-shaped confetti and barbershop quartet.

Local growers say they have only recently begun to recover from the “freeze of the century,” which struck California’s agriculture industry in December 1990 like an icy sledgehammer.

Saved by east winds, Santa Clara Valley citrus growers earned their highest returns in history during the big chill while San Joaquin Valley and northern California producers struggled as their fruit froze solid.

But following that banner year, local orange growers were plagued for several seasons by poor quality crops and undersized fruit for reasons still unknown, hurting profits.

“Fillmore-Piru’s quality reputation has been tested, but certainly not broken,” Hanlin said.