Photo courtesy of Alico, Inc. 
Photo courtesy of Alico, Inc. 
Photo courtesy of Alico, Inc.
Florida citrus company and landowner Alico, Inc. saw harvested boxes of fruit decrease during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 but got a boost from higher prices linked to consumer demand for orange juice. The company reported this in federal Securities and Exchange Commission filings released Tuesday.
Alico said it harvested 6.4 million boxes of fruit during the year, down 16.1% from the previous fiscal year. But it said the decrease was better than the overall 21.7% decline in the state’s orange crop reported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Also, it said increased consumption led to decreased inventory levels at juice processors and, as a result, higher prices. “As we commence our current harvest season and look out to fiscal year 2022, we are encouraged to see consumption of not-from-concentrate orange juice remaining strong, and processor inventories are at lower-than-normal levels,” Alico President and CEO John Kiernan said in a prepared statement Tuesday. “We believe market prices for fiscal year 2022 should remain near or above those recorded in the 2020-2021 harvest season.”
Florida growers have struggled for years against residential and commercial development, foreign imports and citrus greening, an incurable bacterial disease.
According to Alico, the company owns about 83,000 acres of land in Charlotte, Collier, DeSoto, Glades, Hardee, Hendry, Highlands and Polk counties and is one of the largest citrus producers in the country. The Fort Myers-based company also said it sold about 19,800 acres during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 and used the proceeds to buy more citrus land, prepay debt and increase a stock dividend.
Source: The News Service of Florida
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