Restaurant closings inflict collateral damage on Florida produce farmers

Apr. 19--This content is being provided for free as a public service to our readers during the coronavirus outbreak. Sign up for our daily or breaking newsletters to stay informed. If local news is important to you, consider becoming a digital subscriber to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

***

PARRISH -- Tiffany Bailey felt optimistic about the future of her 10-year-old business, Honeyside Farms, when she planted the first vegetables of the season three months ago.

Bailey grows organic tomatoes, cauliflower, leafy lettuce and other greens on seven acres in northern Manatee County. She typically sells those vegetables directly to some of the area's restaurants and markets in Southwest Florida -- Geckos, Lila, the Sarasota Farmers Market, Morton's Gourmet Market.

The new harvest was ready to come out of the ground and delivered directly to area kitchens or local shelves in mid-March.

See our complete coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

Several days later, Gov. Ron DeSantis shut down all restaurants and bars in the state except for takeout and delivery. Orders from restaurants, normally more than 80% of Honeyside Farms' business sales, stopped almost entirely.

"It was an immediate impact; there wasn't much warning," Bailey said.

As dining rooms across the United States have gone dark to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, the first to feel the impact were the restaurant employees and owners. But the pain is also radiating to the thousands of small and large farmers across Florida, like Honeyside Farms, who rely on restaurants for most or all of their sales.

Social distancing and virus infections have also broken down key parts of what is normally an international food delivery system, from produce grown in other countries, to meat-processing plants in other states, to truckers and other distribution systems.

RELATED: List of restaurants for takeout, delivery in Sarasota-Bradenton-Venice

Produce sales at supermarkets have also slumped, as customers are choosing canned, frozen and other nonperishable items over fresh.

Meanwhile, thousands of acres of fruits and vegetables grown in Florida are being plowed over, set ablaze or left to rot because farmers cannot sell their produce. Farmers are also dumping milk and breaking eggs as closures continue to destroy the demand for those products.

Many growers have donated produce to food banks, but there's a limit on what the nonprofits can accept, and storage is an issue for perishable fruits and vegetables. With some measured success, others are selling directly to customers or ramping up U-pick fruit weekends.

Despite those efforts, as much as 80% of Florida's produce is going to waste. Farmers typically lose between 10 to 12%.

The loss has created a domino effect through the farming industry, Florida's second-largest economic driver. It yields $155 billion in revenue and supports about two million jobs. Many multigenerational farms are in danger of closing for good.

"The losses have been swift, staggering and devastating," said Lisa Lochridge, director of public affairs for Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association, the state's leading full-service specialty crop organization.

A bright spot?

Albritton Fruit Farms in Sarasota County, like other small-scale operations, have ramped up U-pick blueberry weekends to sell furit that would otherwise rot on the bush.

It's the peak of the growing season for blueberries, and usually by this time the farm would have moved about 170,000 pounds. Instead, only 38,000 pounds have been picked and sold to a packing house, leaving the lion's share of the farm's profit left to rot in the fields.

Albritton had about 1,000 people show up last weekend, about 10 times the crowd that it typically sees during the season, said Sarah Albritton, whose family has grown citrus since 1880.

"If we have three more weekends like this, we might be able to break even," Albritton said.

SUPPORT LOCAL NEWS: Consider subscribing today

Albritton has also added a roadside location on Proctor Road to sell prepicked blueberries.

There are at least 85 farms in Florida that are selling directly to customers, with that number growing each day.

Other local farms, like Honeyside, are reinventing themselves as online food delivery businesses and embracing social media to connect with new customers.

"That wasn't really on our horizon several weeks ago," said Bailey. "We've been able to quickly get sales online and funnel about half of our produce through these online sales, and they've been growing ever since."

Still, revenue is about 20% of what was projected for this year, Bailey said.

While selling directly to the public has emerged as a bright spot for smaller agricultural outfits, larger establishments can only sell a fraction of the harvest, said Gene Mcavoy, associate director for stakeholder relations at the University of Florida/Institute of Food and Agriculture Sciences.

One large packing house in Immokalee sold large boxes of squash, cabbage and other greens, mixed in a box for $20. By 10 a.m., a line of cars stretched over a mile for about five hours.

"That sounds like a fantastic thing, but he only sold 25,000 pounds of veggies," Mcavoy said.

"On a normal day, he ships 10 semi-trucks," he said. "It's just a drop in the bucket."

Jones Potato Farm Inc., which has a combined 4,500 acres in Lee, Hendry, Glades and Manatee County, has left 1,500 acres of green beans to rot in the field. It's too expensive to harvest.

"It costs $6 a bushel to pick and pack it," said owner Alan Jones. "When you're talking thousands of bushels, that's a lot of money wasted.

Sysco is one of Jones' biggest customers and purchases anywhere from three to four orders a week. It placed one order in March.

Because Jones is also contracted with Frito-Lay, selling potatoes on a nationwide scale, he is mostly shielded from the day-to-day supply and demand that other vegetable farmers are under.

One beneficiary is local food banks.

"On the outside, it's a Godsend," said Sandra Frank, chief executive officer of All Faiths Food Bank. "The silver lining, if there is one, is that more people are receiving more produce than ever before."

All Faiths Food Bank in Sarasota and Manatee has seen a 72% increase in the amount of produce distributed from January until the end of March, compared to the previous year. The nonprofit is exploring ways to pick and preserve all the produce for future use, something it hasn't done before.

Meanwhile, donations of chicken, beef and other meat remains flat.

A solution?

The coronavirus came as a one-two punch to Florida growers who had experienced significant losses under two decades under the North American Free Trade Agreement. Over time, many multi-generational farms have disappeared.

During the pandemic, imported blueberries continue to flood U.S. markets, forcing farmers to compete with lower prices, said Lochridge, the director of public affairs for Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association.

In the past month, 20 federal lawmakers from Florida and state Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried sent letters urging U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to include Florida farmers in federal food purchase and distribution programs so the surplus crops can help feed the hungry and food insecure.

Some 37 million Americans struggled with hunger before the pandemic, according to Feeding America, a nationwide network food bank.

President Donald Trump announced on Friday a $19 billion coronavirus relief plan specifically for farmers and ranchers. Included in the plan are expected to be both direct payment to individuals and a program to purchase food from U.S. farmers and ranchers to be distributed throughout the country through food banks.

The Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association and others are attempting to pressure grocery stores and supermarkets to prioritize state produce over imported items.

"This pandemic has shone a spotlight on the importance of American farmers, putting healthy, nutritious food on our tables," Lochridge said. "When a farm closes, it doesn't come back. We must be able to feed our own country."

___

(c)2020 Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Fla.

Visit Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Fla. at www.heraldtribune.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.