SOUTHERN GARDENS QUICKLY BECOMES A GIANT IN THE ORANGE JUICE WORLD
Publication: Palm Beach Post
Printed: Monday, January 26, 2004
Written By: Susan Salisbury

In January 1994, Southern Gardens Citrus of Clewiston began processing orange juice. Now, 10 years and more than 34 billion oranges later, it is the second-largest producer of not-from-concentrate orange juice in the world.

The company has increased its processing capacity tenfold, producing 120 million gallons of juice a year from its 33,000 acres of Valencia and Hamlin variety groves in Hendry County and from other area groves.

"The only larger producer in total would be Tropicana at its two plants," said Rodney Liddle, president of Southern Gardens, a subsidiary of U.S. Sugar Corp. "We are the largest single plant."

There's no Southern Gardens label. Instead, the company supplies juice to Tropicana, Minute Maid and most of the major private label brands, including Winn-Dixie, Kroger and Wal-Mart, Liddle said. The plant was built to process frozen concentrate orange juice, but the company shifted almost all of its capacity to 100 percent pure premium orange juice as the market changed, Liddle said.

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