One of Florida’s last citrus packing houses, Emerald Packing Company, is closing its doors. Emerald Packing Company owner Stuart Arost: “We had a good time for a long time. It was time to get rid of the packing house. Business is slow. We went from 240 million boxes in the state to over 3 million roughly right now, and the viability of the business just changed.”
Arost said the packing house has been in their family since 1972. He said that once his father took it over, the packing house became a family business. Arost: “It was a family business, and it stayed a family business even to the last day my boys were working with me, telling me what to do, when to do it, and I was totally comfortable with it because they were more current than me, and that’s the way it kind of played out. It was a nice business. I miss it already. Has it been gone that long? It’s nice to have family around you and go through the good and bad times.”
With the combination of Florida’s declining citrus industry and being located in an area experiencing so much growth, they felt like it was time to sell the property.
Source: clickorlando.com
