Juice Market Viability for Cold-Hardy Citrus Growers

A Georgia citrus industry leader believes the juice market can be a viable alternative for satsuma mandarins. But first, Georgia will need the infrastructure in place to make that a reality, says Lindy Savelle, executive director of the Georgia Citrus Association.

“Georgia needs an extractor, because hauling a semi-load of oranges to Florida to be juiced is risky and problematic,” Savelle said. “Satsumas don’t travel well, especially when they’re packed tight. You don’t want to haul a semi-load down there and it’d already be juiced on the trailer. If you had an extractor here in Georgia, you could extract the juice here and put the juice on a tanker that can be shipped anywhere.”

There are other challenges that growers must consider when pursuing the juice market. Not all varieties will work, and the citrus has to produce high enough Brix (sugar level).

A main advantage to growing for juice is that the fruit’s appearance doesn’t have to be pretty. Fresh fruit that is not aesthetically pleasing enough for the average consumer to purchase can be juiced.

But before growers can take that step, they need a significant investment to be made in the industry’s future. Savelle says GCA is talking with juice companies and legislators about getting a juice extractor in Georgia. The challenge is to convince a company to support the limited production in the cold-hardy region.

“That’s the problem that we’re facing here in Georgia,” Savelle explains. “As the citrus industry is getting bigger, the pace of our growth has slowed down. But we’re still growing. We’re big enough to get the attention of California growers, Texas growers, Louisiana growers, Florida growers and Brazil growers. Everybody’s wondering what Georgia is up to and what they’re going to do about Georgia.

“But we’re still very small. We don’t have the infrastructure or the volume of production. It’s a catch-22 where we know we can grow a product that people will want in large volume, but getting from where we are now to that point is a difficult and expensive road to travel.”