Southern Gardens Citrus Processing's latest set of six million-gallon not-from-concentrate tanks came on line in April, giving Southern Gardens a total of 50 million gallons of not-from-concentrate storage, second only to Tropicana.

On the market front, demand for orange juice is still down nationwide after September 11.  The only category that has shown any growth is not-from-concentrate, and its growth has been lower than usual at five percent.

Robert Buker, Jr. President of Southern Gardens Citrus, announced the retirement of Greg Carlton, Vice President of Grove Operations.  Carlton was with U.S. Sugar and Southern Gardens for 33 years.  He was responsible for the development of the groves we have today.  According to Buker, "We are fortunate to be able to announce that the groves will be led by Jim Snively, who will be on board by the middle of May."  Snively has extensive citrus horticultural credentials.  He is leaving Consolidated Citrus, the largest grove operation in America.  Prior to that Snively also managed groves for Turner Foods, the grove subsidiary for Florida Power and Light.