Citrus fetching record prices amid severe shortage

Citrus fruits are fetching record prices in Jamaica due to a severe shortage locally and across the globe, caused by both disease and climate events.

A 90-pound field box of oranges costs about $15,000, which is up from about $800 about 15 years ago before the local stock was ravaged by the citrus greening disease.

Currently, there is a high demand for citrus seedlings from persons seeking to establish small plots, even as the Government rolls out a citrus revitalisation programme in the parish of Manchester.

“In my mind, Jamaica now has some of the most expensive citrus across the world. A box of citrus worldwide is probably about US$30 to US$40 while here, we are looking at close to US$100 per box,” Alfred Bennett, manager of the nursery and seed certification unit of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining, told the Financial Gleaner.

Even with a conservative $10,000 per box and with each tree yielding one box of oranges on average, with 200 trees per acre, farmers can make a cool $2 million per year off just one acre of land.