Dive Brief:

• Two of Florida's biggest citrus growers will merge their packing operations. 
• The deal unites the packing operations of Greene River Packing and Leroy Smith Inc. Work will be conducted at Greene River's facilities in Vero Beach. 
• The deal extends existing business relationships between the Greene and Smith families. Another company called Greene River Marketing handles North American sales for Greene River, Leroy Smith, Riverfront Packing, and Oslo Citrus. 

Dive Insight:

Business among the citrus growers around Vero Beach tends to be congenial. The citrus world is full of cooperative agreements, marketing alliances and such. So there's nothing particularly surprising about this deal.

There is something a bit unclear, however. Last year Greene River, Leroy Smith, Riverfront and Oslo were all involved in a marketing alliance with the giant of the industry: Sunkist. The news about the packing alliance doesn't say what the fate of the Sunkist deal might be now.