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HURRICANE BOOSTS MARKET FOR CALIFORNIA GRAPEFRUIT

SACRAMENTO - The devastating hurricane damage to Florida's grapefruit crop has significantly boosted the demand for California-grown grapefruit.
 
In the last week alone, prices for fresh grapefruit from California and Arizona have increased about 10%, according to Sunkist Growers, a Sherman Oaks-based marketing cooperative representing 6,000 citrus growers in both states.
 
Florida ranks as the nation's No. 1 producer of the fruit with Texas and California ranked a distant second and third, respectively.
 
In recent years, many California growers had been scaling back their grapefruit fields amid low prices and stiff competition from Florida and growing competition from overseas growers, who can take advantage of tariffs and cheaper labor costs.

Florida's orange crop took a big hit from the hurricanes, but that wasn't expected to translate into any real gains for California. Most Florida oranges are used to make orange juice, while most California oranges are sold as fresh fruit, according to the Sacramento-based California Farm Bureau.

LANDEC EXPANDS TECH-BASED SEED LINES

MENLO PARK - The Landec Ag Corp., a developer and marketer of technology-based polymer products for food, agricultural and licensed partner applications announced today that its agricultural seed subsidiary, has introduced its new line-up of hybrid seeds for 2005 - seeds with genetic traits, on-seed chemical treatments, and polymer coatings.
 
The company recently introduced 26 new corn hybrids for 2005, bringing the line-up to 116 hybrid seed varieties it currently has for sale.
 
During the last three years, Landec Ag has added a total of 81 new hybrids to the product line-up, including varieties with the latest traits and technologies.

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