The Japanese Connection

In 1971, Mr. Kanagawa, a businessman from Osaka, Japan, paid his first visit to Indian River County. He had made a fortune in the steel business, but had decided that citrus would be an interesting sideline and that the Vero Beach area would be the best place to grow it.

Kanagawa set about purchasing several hundred acres of groves and brought in Japanese workers. “Macoy” became the brand name of his fruit, and he asked George Lambeth of the Golden River Fruit Co. to pack it for him. It was a hobby that Kanagawa visited only once a year, but he kept it going for five years. It was the start of a lucrative relationship between Indian River County and the Land of the Rising Sun.

Doug Bournique is the executive vice president and general manager of the Indian River Citrus League, which encompasses groves from Daytona to West Palm Beach.

Read the entire article in the March 2001 issue