This month, the Save Florida Citrus Groves Foundation launched in response to Florida's citrus crisis. The organization claims to be the first and only nonprofit dedicated to offering small citrus growers grants and assistance to preserve the Sunshine State’s iconic orange and save Florida's citrus legacy.

Freshfruitportal.com spoke to the organization's president, Adrian Bryce, about what prompted him and co-founder Corey Bryce to create a foundation dependent on an industry under duress.

Although he doesn't come from an agricultural background, Bryce has worked with fruits for over a decade. He owned a skincare company that only used fresh fruits, and although he has since sold the company, creating the nonprofit is a full-circle moment for him. 

"Around 2007, I had started a skincare company called Bryce Organics, and all the products were made from fresh fruit and vegetable puree, and one of the best sellers used Meyer lemon, which we used to get from Florida." 

Since then, he and the non-profit's cofounder have moved to Florida and discovered the citrus industry's decline. After pondering and countless hours of research, Bryce saw a gap. 

"The state is begging for help, but the funds are mostly going to the biggest producers, and everyone else is going out of business, or they're just focused on addressing the greening disease," he explained. "But small growers are the ones keeping everything afloat, so we decided to create a foundation that would be the middleman for small growers." 

He believes there's a disconnect between Floridians and the state's legacy. "I want to remind people what the state is about and known for, and that can't depend on just help from state representatives. We need to take care of this issue; we need a coalition made up of different small businesses." 

Future plans

His plan is to partner with local credit unions willing to match the grants the non-profit is willing to offer. All grants will have a common denominator, but the plan is to diversify to offer even slight help for different issues. He explains that, "As the donations come in, we're going to start offering grants, which would be dependent on donations and would start from $500 to $10,000."

Although the non-profit is fairly new, he says he's received many volunteer offers from people who would like to join the organization.

He believes a major issue is the development in citrus fields. Due to the decrease in production, many growers have had to give up their land due to a lack of help and revenue.

Bryce believes that working alongside growers under duress and hearing their feedback while also helping younger, small growers would be a big help to the industry. 

When asked about the citrus industry being a struggling, difficult one to crack, Bryce said he is optimistic that small citrus growers can survive with help from a concerned community and stands by it. 

"The community is willing to help and volunteer, and the website is getting a lot of traction. We're all going to work together to address the issues growers face."