HAINES CITY – Brazil's booming economy makes it an up-and-coming player in the global marketplace, but its citrus industry is being left behind.
The changing global economy is making Florida citrus more competitive with its longtime rival, said Tom Spreen, an agricultural economist at the University of Florida in Gainesville and an authority on the global citrus industry.
"They're getting to a cost structure that's more and more like ours," Spreen said.
Among the factors closing the cost gap Brazil previously enjoyed against its Florida competitors are the rising strength of the Real, Brazil's currency, which makes its exports more expensive; the higher cost of labor, also fueled by a booming economy; and the rising cost of Brazilian farmland, particularly in competition with sugar, another major crop increasingly used to produce ethanol.
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