County gives sugar cane farm rental increase break

By John Johnston
Managing Editor

A clerical error by county staff has resulted in one small farm paying about $7,000 less than is normally required in its lease of 7.3 acres of county land south of Pahokee.

The lease requires an annual base rent of $2,555 – and would ordinarily require rental rate increases based on a county formula.

However, a document review recently discovered that the rental rate adjustment formula in the lease was actually the formula had Closer Farms, Inc. been renting the land from the State -- which it does on land adjacent to the county owned land, and which is likely the reason that state language was used in the county lease when the county land was rented by Closter in 1995.

The county recently told Closter that, and based on the county formula, the firm owed an additional $7,145 for the years 1995 through 2007.

Closter in turn argued that the rental adjustment provision was not what it intended, and would result in a rent it could not afford to pay based upon current market conditions. 

Commissioners said “because this has been continuing for many years, and due to the likely inability to lease this small property to another farmer,” the county would agree to amend the lease “consistent with how rental increases are calculated by the State.”

The amended lease also reflects that the Closter doesn’t owe the originally assessed $7,145, commissioners said.

The Company

Closter Farms is part of the much larger and well known Florida Crystals Corp. The Fanjul family sugar cane farming operation began in South Florida in 1960 by Cuban brothers Alfonso and Jose Fanjul, shortly after the 1959 Cuban revolution.

The brothers head Florida Crystals Corp., one of the country's largest sugar cane growers and refiners, and employ about 3,000 in Palm Beach County.

Closter Farms itself began in 1973.

According to the firm’s website, Florida Crystals owns 180,000 acres of land, operates two sugar mills, a rice mill, a refinery, its own packaging and distribution center, and a renewable energy facility, which provides electricity for its operations as well as 43,000 homes.

Florida Crystals' and its affiliates operations include:

• Farming - The company grows sugar cane and rice as a rotation crop.

• Milling - Okeelanta is the largest mill with a capacity of 22,000 tons per day. The Osceola mill has a daily grinding capacity of 13,500 tons. The Sem-Chi rice mill produces a full line of premium rice products, including about half the white rice consumed in the South Florida market.