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In the Grove & On the Record - Chad Durrell

Chad Durrell

This edition’s profile features Chad Durrell. Growing up in Vero Beach, Durrell was always around citrus and when it came time to choose a career, he didn’t give much thought to any other option. Now, nearly 20 years later he serves as Operations Manager for United Indian River Packers.

Please give some background/history for your company.
United Indian River Packers is owned by Kennedy Groves. The Kennedy family has been farming Indian River Grapefruit for over 100 years. Back in 1967 there was a group of growers that got together and formed United and through out the years the Kennedy’s bought out the partners and in 1989 they became the sole owners of United. We currently own/lease approximately 6,000 acres of citrus today and pack around 1.2 million cartons each year.

Triangle: What do you find most challenging about being in the Florida citrus industry?
Everything!! So much has changed in just the past 6-7 years, from the way we grow, pick and pack fruit, labor, pest and diseases, you name it. But from a fresh fruit side I would have to say Canker is pretty challenging.

What are you doing to combat the challenges of greening, black spot and other invasive pests and diseases?
We are doing as much as we can these days. We are constantly spraying, scouting, testing new products as they become available, talking with other growers and sharing our results. In order to survive we have to all work together.

Why is it important to be a Mutual member?
As an industry we face many challenges, not only in the field but with things such as marketing issues, immigration reform, politics, research dollars and so on. It becomes necessary to have a organization to serve as a unified voice for the grower to help battle all of these different challenges we face