In 1915, Claude E. Street produced his first bottle of Street's Grapefruit Juice in Haines City, Florida, becoming the first citrus juice processing manufacturer in America. Today, behind Brazil, Florida is the second-largest producer of orange juice in the world with nearly 76,000 Floridians working in the citrus industry or a related business, generating more than $8.6 billion in economic activity. Here's a look at where your orange juice is produced now and has been in the past.

Regional/Niche-Market Brands

Florida’s three largest regional or niche market brands are Indian River Select, Natalie’s Orchid Island, and Nobel.

Indian River Select

(Courtesy of Indian River Select)

The Indian River Select brand was established by Cliff Burg in Fort Pierce in 1996. Processed at Burg’s FreshCo Limited, Indian River Select Brand Juice is all natural, using 100% Florida Orange and Ruby Red Grapefruit juice. The privately owned brand only uses fruit from Florida’s Indian River District.

“We’re in about 3,500 stores, and we focus on very high quality in our orange and grapefruit business,” Burg explains. “We do a very good job on O.J., but we have one of the premier grapefruit juices.” To this day, we only use Florida fruit picked at the peak of harvest, squeezed carefully and flash pasteurized to preserve all the quality and natural goodness of oranges and grapefruits. We take the center cut of the Florida citrus harvest, using only mid to late season oranges and grapefruit, picked at their peak. Then process them in small runs, to a higher standard (brix), thus giving our juice a richer, sweeter, fresher taste.

https://indianriverselect.com/our-story/history/

Natalie’s Orchid Island Juice Company

(Courtesy of Natalie’s Orchid Island Juice Company)

Natalie’s Orchid Island is a woman-owned speciality juice company founded by Marygrace Sexton in 1990. Named after Marygrace’s daughter, the company started by using only hand selected Indian River fruit grown in Sexton’s groves. Focusing on 100% fresh-squeezed orange, grapefruit, tangerine, lemon and lime juices, along with lemonade and limeade, the company is known for pulling its juices from the shelves 17 days from the date of juice extraction. Based in Fort Pierce and nationally recognized ten times for producing America’s Best Tasting Fresh Florida Juices, Natalie’s products can be found in over 33 states and 41 countries worldwide.

Noble Juice (sojo)

Noble was established by Winter Haven-based fruit packer William G. Roe & Sons in 1995 as a response to innovating its business after being devastated by citrus freezes in the 1980s and early 1990s. The Noble product line is concentrated on 100% tangerine juice and blends with mangos, clementines, guavas, cranberries and blood oranges, in addition to organic citrus juices. To produce the product, Blue Lake Citrus Products was established adjacent to William G. Roe & Sons packinghouse in the former juice processing facilities of Bordo Citrus Products Inc. Bordo closed after 64 years of operation in 1990, following a 1989 Christmas freeze that destroyed hundreds of millions of dollars worth of fruit statewide. In 2016, Blue Lake Citrus Products was acquired by Miami-based Sun Orchard and the Noble product line was rebranded as SoJo.

Private Label Brands and Food Service

Peace River Citrus Products, Inc.

Independent and privately owned Peace River Citrus Products, Inc. may be one of the state’s largest citrus processors that you’ve likely never heard of. Peace River’s plants in Arcadia and Bartow have a combined annual fruit processing capacity of 20 million boxes. Peace River supplies juices and by-products to major national brands such as Tropicana and Minute Maid as well as private label producers. In addition, it’s plant in LaBelle produces packaged goods for food service providers which then distribute them to a variety of locations including hotels, restaurants, schools and nursing homes.

Southern Gardens Citrus

(Courtesy of Southern Gardens Citrus)

Established by US Sugar in 1993, Southern Gardens Citrus is recognized as the most recent major juice processing plant built in Florida. Located in Clewiston, Southern Gardens produces natural, 100% juice for both popular brands and private labels. Growing and processing its own oranges, Southern Gardens can produce up to 90 million gallons annually, making it one of the largest suppliers of pure Florida orange juice nationwide.

Silver Springs Citrus

(Courtesy of Silver Springs Citrus)

Established in Howey-in-The-Hills in 1921, Silver Springs Citrus is one of the largest private label manufacturers of refrigerated juice in North America. Producing 40 million gallons annually, Silver Springs sells its private label products to traditional grocery retailers, specialty and health-oriented grocery stores, wholesalers, mass merchanisers, drug stores and convenience stores.