Tale of an Orange

Some thing to consider in this time of high fuel prices is how these cost translate into the cost of our food in the grocery store. My husband and I have been in the tranportation industry for over 13 years. The majority of the loads that we have been paid to haul were food items, either produce or livestock.

A few years back we hauled a load of oranges (48,000 pounds) from California to Florida. It seemed strange to us that Florida would need more oranges, since a majority of oranges already grown in that state. But that was not the suprising and mind-blowing part of the story.

After we delivered our load of oranges to the Sunkiss Plant we picked up new load of oranges at the same plant to be delivered back to California! This seemed even odder than bringing California oranges to Florida now we were take them back. So my husbands asked the dock workers what was the story, what did they do at this plant?

We were told by the dock foreman that all this plant did was stick the little Sunkiss label on the oranges. We were shocked, to say the least. We would be using 600 gallons of fuel to bring these oranges to Florida and 600 gallons to take them back to California.

Back in those days we were paid about $1.05 per mile, so that added to about $6,300 added to the cost of those California oranges just so they could have a little Sunkiss label stuck on them. That translates to about 13 cents per pound. This was the practice for millions of pounds oranges per year.

I would think that the company would want to build another label sticking plant in California near where the oranges are grown, instead of shipping them across the country and then shipping back so they could be shipped out to the grocery stores.

So let us fast forward to the present, just suppose that this practice is still continuing, which I have no knowledge that it is, but just for the sake of argument let us pretend that it is, the cost would look something like this.

6000 miles @ $1.35 per mile with a fuel service charge of 28 cents per mile, equals $9,780.
$9,780 divided by 48,000 pounds equals 20 cents per pound added cost to oranges.

It seems to me that this is a very wasteful use of diesel fuel just so a company can have a "branded product". As a small company that depends on the transportation of goods from one point to another, some would say we should be grateful for the work, however we look at it from a different point of view.

Yes, it is nice to have work now, but my husband and I have a little longer point of view. What will happen to everyone when prices of fuel go higher than they already are, right after Katrina hit we were paying as much as $3.95 per gallon for our truck fuel. You will be seeing the impact of those price we were paying in the supermarket in about 3 to 6 months, especially hard hit will be your budget for meat, including chicken and pork.

We would like to see a more logical use of our resources, that insures that the food distribution chain can be maintained for as long as possible. Making a quick buck today at the expense of our ablity to survive tomarrow is not a prudent way to care for our fellow citizens.