Texas’ citrus industry — once an agricultural powerhouse — is on the brink of disaster

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MISSION — In January, Elle Holbrook will be crowned Queen Citrianna, the face of the Rio Grande Valley's citrus industry for the next year.

Her title and the competition created to earn it are part of the Texas Citrus Fiesta, a decades-old celebration of the industry rooted in the Valley.

Holbrook was among the dozens of young women competing for the crown as duchesses, each representing a citrus product.

As the duchess of Rio Red Grapefruit, a staple of Texas citrus, she donned an elaborate red gown with rhinestones running down the length of the dress’s skirt to resemble sections of a grapefruit.

Next month, she will debut a new white and gold gown during a ceremony held in Mission, where John H. Shary planted the first large commercial citrus orchard in the Valley.

But as 17-year-old Holbrook prepares to make her first appearance as queen and the city readies for a string of festivities, the future of the citrus industry is uncertain. A pair of natural disasters — including Winter Storm Uri in 2021 — and a lack of water have put the million-dollar citrus industry and regional leaders on edge.

“The freeze killed all of our lemon and lime crop of our personal farm, which was very sad because it was a big industry,” said Holbrook, whose family owns South Tex Organics, the largest grower of organic citrus in Texas.

The company, started by her grandfather, Dennis Holbrook, suffered from the winter storm and yielded little to no crop the year after the freeze. Nearly four years later, production levels are still not where they once were. A lack of water has prevented the industry from recovering.

"Since there's no water, it was hard for it to bounce back,” Holbrook said.

Texas' citrus industry is entirely based in the Rio Grande Valley and has a more than $300 million economic impact on the state.

"We are not a large physical footprint anymore, but we still pack enough economic punch," said Dale Murden, president of Texas Citrus Mutual, a nonprofit trade association that represents the interests of commercial citrus growers.

The reduction can be traced back to a 2020 hurricane followed by the winter storm in 2021. The freezing temperatures caused the loss of two crops –– the crop that was on the tree and the citrus flowers that were starting to bloom for the next crop, Murden said.

The water necessary for their recovery has been in short supply.

"Medicine, for the trees, is water," said April Flowers, marketing director for Lone Star Citrus Growers. "We were in drought and we have struggled to come back from this drought, and so our recovery has been very prolonged."

As a result, the company is only producing about 75% of its typical crop size in terms of tonnage.

Farmers in the Valley largely depend on surface water from the Rio Grande.

A mature citrus tree typically needs between 40 and 50 inches of water a year, said David Laughlin, a research associate at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research Center.

The average rainfall in the Valley is about 20 inches per year, so about half of the water that a tree needs needs to be supplied through irrigation. Unfortunately, too often, when it rains in the Valley, it pours. Any water that can’t be captured and stored will just run off into the Gulf of Mexico.

That’s why farmers and ranchers in the area depend on irrigation that is facilitated by capturing water at two international reservoirs that feed into the river.

“Without irrigation and water coming from the river, citrus wouldn't exist,” Laughlin said. “Citrus production would not exist in the Valley.”

However, water levels at the reservoirs have been low for two main reasons. First, drought conditions, but also because Mexico has not delivered water that it owes the U.S. under a 1944 treaty.

The treaty dictates how the U.S. and Mexico share water from six tributaries, but Mexico has fallen behind on its water deliveries, leading to scarce water for the agriculture industry.

The lack of water has already prompted the closing of Texas' last sugar mill in February and is preventing the citrus industry from bouncing back.

For the last 20 years, the industry averaged about 15 million cartons of citrus per year, according to Murden. However, last year's harvest was about seven million cartons.

While this year's harvest is looking to hold steady at seven million, farmers aren't able to properly plant, leaving the future of citrus production in question and prompting layoffs among the citrus companies.

"There's willingness to plant, there's acreage to be planted, there's trees in the greenhouse to be planted sitting there because we can't count on the water supply," Murden said. "I'd be planting right now if I had the water."

Last month, the two countries agreed to an amendment to the treaty that gave Mexico more options through which to deliver water. One of those options is giving up excess water through Mexico’s Rio San Juan, which would not otherwise be an option since that river is not one of the six tributaries managed by the treaty.

The U.S. has already accepted 120,000 acre-feet of water from the Río San Juan, but Murden said the water is a relatively small supply that won't have much benefit for agriculture. The treaty requires Mexico to deliver 1.75 million-acre feet of water every five-year cycle. The current cycle ends in October 2025, yet Mexico still owes more than 1.3 million-acre feet.

While the lack of water continues to impact citrus growers, as well as producers of other agricultural products, Murden said the severity of the situation is not being recognized enough.

"The cities haven't run out of water yet," Murden said. "Sometimes, you think, to them, it's a myth that we're going to run out of water because they haven't turned the tap off yet. Meanwhile, I see car wash after car wash being built."

He is also frustrated by what he perceives as the U.S. State Department's refusal to force Mexico to comply, believing the Valley is the sacrificial lamb in larger political or trade negotiations between the U.S. and Mexico.

“We're sacrificed," Murden said.

A spokesperson for the International Boundary and Water Commission, the federal agency that manages the treaty, said they were working with the State Department, Texas officials, and the Mexican government to do all they can to resolve the issue.

“It is unlikely Mexico will meet its water delivery obligations by the end of this five-year cycle. However, the USIBWC has not given up on our efforts to deliver relief to U.S. water users while holding Mexico to its treaty obligations,” said Frank Fisher, the IBWC spokesperson.

“We continue to stay engaged with Mexico and the State Department on this matter and will not quit until Mexico delivers the water it owes to the United States,” Fisher said.

The State Department also said they continued to work with Mexico on obtaining the water.

“We continue to work toward regular water deliveries from Mexico and to hold Mexico to its treaty obligations,” a department spokesperson said. “Mexico has until October 2025 to meet its current Treaty obligations arising from this five-year cycle absent certain exceptions. The United States continues to encourage Mexico to use the tools created in (the treaty amendment) to deliver desperately needed water at the earliest possible date.”

Murden praised efforts by lawmakers to address the issue, particularly a proposal from U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz, R-Edinburg, which would provide emergency financial assistance to farmers for their economic losses. But disaster bills, he said, are not a long-term solution.

“You've got to grow a crop,” he said. “You’ve got to have something to sell."

Flowers doesn’t think the issue is getting the attention it needs or that people truly realize the consequences of lower agricultural production, warning that the nation could experience similar supply chain issues experienced due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I'm truly shocked at how quickly we have forgotten what food scarcity is and what a security issue that is," Flowers said. "Every farmer I know is planting less right now, and when we talk about national security, food supply is a very large piece of that."

The International Boundary and Water Commission, a federal agency that oversees the international water treaty, has stressed the importance of finding other sources of water, a solution that some Valley water suppliers have already started to embrace.

For example, the North Alamo Water Supply Corporation and the Brownsville Public Utilities Board are trying to rely more on groundwater that is treated through desalination.

Citrus growers are also doing what they can to conserve the water they have.

Most citrus growers in the Valley still rely on a system of irrigation called flood irrigation, which consists of opening a valve to flood a field of citrus trees, according to Laughlin, which works well when there’s enough water.

However, many farmers are using another method for their new groves called drip irrigation, which delivers the water directly to the plant.

“It's a lot more efficient, but it takes a lot more money to establish that kind of system,” Laughlin said. “Only growers that can afford it can implement it.”

Lone Star Citrus Growers uses drip irrigation for some of its trees and also using a staggered planting style that places its plants on raised beds that allow space for more trees.

“By being raised, we’re able to deliver more directly and a lot more conservatively,” Flowers said. “We’ve been very proactive in trying to figure out the best way to maximize every drop we get.”

South Tex Organics is also trying to maximize use of its water. The farm is working with Texas A&M University to design different ways to retain water near the soil, said Emily Holbrook, Elle Holbrook’s mother, who advocates for more research funding the university.

"Our state representatives really need to be there for us,” Emily Holbrook said.

As the queen of the citrus industry, Elle Holbrook plans to advocate for the industry by raising the profile of the products with children at elementary schools and through social media.

The citrus industry should be an important symbol of all of Texas, not just the Valley, Emily Holbrook said, arguing that Texas should be recognized as having the best-tasting citrus over Florida and California.

"Georgia has their peaches," she said. “Texas has citrus.”

Reporting in the Rio Grande Valley is supported in part by the Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas, Inc.

Disclosure: Texas A&M AgriLife, Texas A&M University, Texas Citrus Mutual and USI have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.