Area Citrus Growers Meet With Mexico Competitors : Agribusiness: Producers from south of the border get warm but wary reception from county farmers fearful of proposed free-trade pact.

Fearful that a free-trade agreement with Mexico would put the squeeze on Ventura County’s $114-million orange industry, local citrus growers met Monday with agricultural experts from across the border in an effort to head off damaging competition.

But friendly smiles and warm handshakes could not conceal the tension as local farmers tried to assess the power of Mexico’s small-but-growing citrus industry.

With the 3,000-page North American Free Trade Agreement still in flux, unratified and perhaps open to renegotiation, growers north of the border had trouble gauging “whether we got took or they got took,” said Ken Creasom, president of the Fillmore-Piru Citrus Assn.

Both sides did, however, come away from the meeting with a few solid--and, from the Californian point of view, disturbing--facts.

For one, Mexican growers can produce Valencia oranges for about 7 cents a pound, according to Eduardo Andrade, who represents a citrus growers association in Baja California.

That’s bad news for Ventura County farmers, who charge retailers twice as much--roughly 13 cents a pound--for the same oranges, Fillmore grower Dick Richardson calculated.

Currently, sanitary regulations prohibit shipping fresh oranges across the border, since Mexican citrus tends to carry Mexican fruit flies. To further protect California growers, the United States slaps a 35-cent-per-pound tariff on byproducts such as orange juice concentrate.

Both those barriers will fall, however, if Congress approves the North American Free Trade Agreement that Mexican, Canadian and U. S. negotiators hammered out in August. Then-President George Bush and his counterparts signed the agreement in December, but legislatures in all three countries have yet to ratify the weighty document.

President Clinton has promised to throw his weight behind the agreement if negotiators can amend it to bolster environmental standards for Mexican industry and to protect U. S. workers who lose their jobs as U. S. firms relocate across the border.

“I think the free-trade agreement is going to hurt us,” Creasom said, although he emphasized the need to learn more about the pact. “We’re concerned.”

Officially, Monday’s meeting with more than a dozen Mexican agriculture professors, bureaucrats and growers was designed to put a human face on the bewilderingly complex free-trade agreement through friendly discourse.

But beyond the niceties, local agribusinessmen admitted that they hoped to instill a little fear into would-be competitors.

The Mexicans’ itinerary included a 90-minute tour of the high-tech Sunkist packing plant in Piru, which features cutting-edge waxing, sorting and grading equipment as well as such less-spectacular innovations as energy-efficient doors.

“We’re giving them an indication of what we’re capable of over here, which protects our marketplace,” said Bill Goodrich, president of the United Agribusiness League, which organized the trip. “They’ll realize it’s going to take many, many years to come to this level, so they can’t jump into the market and start selling oranges right away.”

But some citrus ranchers worried this technique could backfire.

“To be releasing some of our trade secrets is a little disconcerting,” said Richardson, whose Fillmore orange ranch covers 650 acres.

Indeed, Mexican grower Andrade, one of many shutter-snapping, question-asking visitors to the plant, seemed to relish the implied challenge.

“The technology doesn’t scare us--it’s a motivation,” he said. “We want to get closer and closer.”

This eagerness to foray into U. S. markets troubled many local growers, especially because Mexico’s specialty, Valencia oranges, also happens to be Ventura County’s mainstay.

Agricultural analysts have suggested that winter navel oranges, which don’t grow in Mexico’s desert climate, might be an ideal export from California. Yet navels make up less than 10% of Ventura County’s orange crop. As Creasom said, “We’re on the upside-down end of the equation here.”

BACKGROUND

The North American Free Trade Agreement would eliminate import-export tariffs on all farm goods within 15 years, although duties would rise automatically if imports begin to overwhelm home-grown products. The pact would also grant U.S. trucking companies the right to carry cargo across the border. Then-President George Bush, Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari and Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney signed the agreement in December. Now the pact must be ratified by Mexican, Canadian and American legislatures.