Orange prices
expected to double

Crops ruined by cold in
California force grocers to
contemplate their navels' price

By Lori Tighe
Star-Bulletin

The price of navel oranges will give Hawaii customers a punch in the stomach shortly into the new year, several supermarkets said.

Star Markets, Foodland, Times and Daiei expect prices to increase from about 50 cents a pound to possibly $1 or more.

The reason is that more than half of California's orange crop was killed in 21-degree weather which hit the week before Christmas, as a cold front swept the mainland from west to east.

California grows 80 percent of the fresh oranges that the nation consumes as a table fruit.

New Year's Day revelers planning annual holiday feasts should find plenty of navels -- bought before the California freeze -- at normal prices, most grocers say.

But the squeeze will begin next week.

"Oh yes, the prices will be a lot higher," said James Law, produce buyer for Daiei. "The growers invoked the 'Act of God rule,' which cancels all contracts due to natural disasters."

As soon as Daiei's advertised special on navel oranges expires this week, the price will at least double, he said.

Navel oranges normally are "a very fast mover" and are called a tonnage item because they are in season and popular, said Floyd Mikasa, produce buyer for Times Super Market.

They are among the top five fruit sellers at most Hawaii markets.

"But the navels now won't be as attractive a buy because of the price," Mikasa said. "I'm sure customers will complain but it's beyond our control."

The industry right now is finding out how bad the situation is, Mikasa said.

The oranges must sit for three to four days after they are picked, and then they are "floated," said Ferrell Hughes of Paramount Export, a Times supplier.

"They run the oranges through a bath," he said. "The ones that sink are good; the ones that float are bad -- they are dried out from the freeze."

When an orange's cell structure freezes, it dehydrates and becomes light enough to float in water, Hughes explained.

Although lemon crops were also frozen, orange crops received more damage, Hughes said. Orange juice prices shouldn't be affected since most oranges for that product come from Florida.

"You'll see the navels at least double in price. Really big navels will be expensive and hard to come by," Hughes said.

Star Markets President John Fujieki said the California navel freeze "is a problem for Hawaii because of the pricing."

But he doesn't think his customers will be shocked.

"They've seen a lot of produce prices go up in the past year because of El Nino," Fujieki said.

Foodland spokeswoman Sheryl Toda said customers won't see prices rise for another 10 to 14 days. Foodland bought a supply just before the freeze, she said.

"After that we will see higher prices, but how high is difficult to predict," Toda said. "Some orange crops were not affected, like central Southern California and Arizona. We may get oranges from there."

As for lemons, Toda didn't foresee the price going up as drastically as for the navels.

"Shucks," she said, "I think we have lemons on special next week -- three for a dollar."