APPENDIX D

 THE MARKET FOR FLORIDA FRUIT AND VEGETABLES


 As noted in Section 4, the most important crops produced in Florida affected by a methyl

bromide ban are tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, squash, watermelons, strawberries,

and citrus. In order to quantitatively analyze the economic impact of a methyl bromide ban on

these crops it was necessary to make a number of simplifying assumptions. First, based upon

location of production, the crop mix of the firms involved in production, and the perennial

nature of citrus, it was assumed that analysis of citrus could be conducted apart from the other

crops. While citrus and the other crops do compete in southwest Florida for land and other

resources, citrus and vegetable production do not compete for land in Dade, Palm Beach, and

west central Florida (near Tampa).

 Therefore, using the production areas delineated by both the Vegetable Summary (FASS,

1993) and Smith and Taylor (1993), four production areas were defined for Florida. The crops

grown in these production areas are tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, squash,

watermelon, and strawberries. The four production areas are Dade County, the east coast area

which is represented by Palm Beach county, southwest Florida which is represented by

Immokolee in Lee county, and west central Florida which is centered near Ruskin in Hillsbrough

County. These production areas are depicted in Figure D. 1.

 Next, it was necessary to determine the months that Florida is a major factor in the U.S.

market and those regions which compete with Florida. The data shown in Tables D. 1 through

D.7 present the market share by production area for the seven crops to be included in vegetable

model. Based upon this information, it is apparent that Florida is an important supplier to the