One of the last citrus packinghouses in Florida is closing its doors.
Riverfront Packing Co., which once packed more grapefruit than any other facility in Florida, the company claimed, is closing its 65-year-old packinghouse, CEO Dan Richey told TCPalm.
The company plans to continue growing citrus on its 2,000 acres of groves but will use other packinghouses for its distribution, he said.
Richey declined additional comment.
On the Bob Soos radio show, Richey explained how the delicate timing of his company’s harvest was thrown off. The company, ultimately, would have insufficient volume to justify continuing packinghouse operations, he said.
“It’s heartbreaking news for me personally,” Richey told Soos July 7 on WTTB radio. “Our strategy did not work. The decline in our older trees was much faster than we anticipated. The rapid disease got us quicker than we thought.”
Richey likely was referring to citrus greening.
“Citrus greening has affected everything,” Richey told TCPalm in March 2025, about declining crop yields.
Citrus greening is an ongoing agricultural epidemic that has been blamed for killing more than 90% of Florida’s citrus production. When the disease infects major commercial growing regions, the economic damage is swift and severe. It’s a bacterial disease with no known cure, and it’s infected nearly every citrus grove in Florida.
Riverfront Packing once was among more than a dozen of packinghouses along U.S. 1 in Indian River County, and all have closed.
Riverfront Packing’s customer focus and attention to detail made it the largest grapefruit packinghouse in Florida, company Vice President Tom Mitchell previously said. It was the final packinghouse that sent produce to Japan, Richey previously said.
IMG Citrus and Egan Fruit Packing are the two packinghouses remaining in Indian River County, which was once the grapefruit basket of the world.
Jack Randall is TCPalm’s economy and real estate reporter. You can reach him at jack.randall@tcpalm.com.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Largest grapefruit packinghouse in Florida closes after ‘rapid disease’
Reporting by Jack Randall, Treasure Coast Newspapers / Treasure Coast Newspapers
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By Jack Randall, Treasure Coast Newspapers | USA TODAY Network
