A Luxury Commodity?

Will the tasty but quite humble orange

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soon become a fruit affordable on the income of the more affluent only?

The recent cold wave had some devastating effects on the California citrus industry in the San Joaquin Valley. Temperatures dropped as low as the middle teens to near 20 degree F for three nights running. According to reports there was close to 1 Billion dollars of fruit on the trees before the frost hit (on 1/12/2007) with 70 % of the crop damaged now. Lemons with their thin skins and low sugar content are even worst hit than oranges, the strawberry crop is badly affected, as are the flowers and avocados being grown in the valley.

The effects of this loss will soon be felt in the stores. Grocery stores, that is. Maybe some clever entrepeneurial spirit will come up with the idea of a device to wear an orange like a brooch and make a killing of another kind with this:

“Orange, the New Platinum.”

6 thoughts on “A Luxury Commodity?”

  1. Well, it was warm on the East Coast while we were shivering here, and in Europe people thought winter would never come. The weather seems to be strangely topsy-turvy. 🙁

    Mikan – would that be satsuma? I love those too, but they do taste different. An orange is an orange is an orange… The perfect starter for breakfast: a bowl of cut up oranges, apricots and pineapple – aaaahhhhhhhh. How can it not be a good day when you start it off like that.

  2. Hopefully the citrus crops in Florida and the Rio Grande Valley (Texas) will be plentiful. Both are big producers of oranges.

  3. Aren’t the oranges in Florida mainly produced for the orange juice industry?
    Meaning that they do not look “pretty” enough to get into the stores?

    And by the way, yes, prices have gone up, as was to be expected.

  4. Well, oranges are a fall crop aren’t they? About out of season now. I don’t know about Florida oranges for juice. I know it’s impossible to buy in our stores the fabulous tree-ripened oranges from the Valley that I’ve had before. Apparently, they are sent every where but to Texas groceries. I’ve had them when people or we brought them back either hand-picked or bought from stalls on roadsides in the Valley.

  5. I did my high school years in Orange County, CA.
    That was when there were a few orange groves still in existence
    in that area…many moons ago. They grew Valencia oranges.
    We used to gorge ourselves on them after soccer practice.
    Valencias are a smaller, thinner skinned orange that’s harder
    to peal than the normal orange sold in stores. It’s a juice
    orange: more juice, better flavor and that’s the orange I buy
    when they become available in stores, which is not often.
    http://calling-muggins.blogspot.com/

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