Citrus marketer DLF International Inc will move into the SunBrite Citrus Inc Florida packhouse it currently leases from Seald Sweet International, moving the company from straight marketing to citrus growing and packing.

DLF’s president Doug Feek said the company plans to buy the shed within three years, and will move into it in the next few months, according to The Packer.

“This will give us the opportunity to give our customers what they want,” Mr Feek said. “We are trying to do everything our customers have mentioned they would like and are looking at other things that are coming down the road. We have had the sales and are now trying to take control over the production.”

Seald Sweet, which bought the packhouse last year, said DLF would do some of their packing as well as its own fruit.

David Mixon, the company’s senior vice-president, said the new arrangement would be a more efficient use of the packhouse, with the combined fruit supplies of the two companys filling capacity.

“We feel with the combination of what supplies we have where we can custom pack and with their fruit grower supply – it will enable the packinghouse to be better used rather than limited with volumes that would be simply by ourselves,” Mr Mixon said.