iParty’s over as Dedham chain sells to N.J. rival

iParty's over as Dedham chain sells to N.J. rival

Dedham's iParty finally has something to celebrate.

Larger competitor Party City has a deal to buy the struggling party goods chain, which in November announced it had hired a financial adviser to explore strategic alternatives. The cash deal, valued at about $10.9 million for common stockholders, represents a 200 percent premium over iParty's Feb. 28 closing share price.

Party City is getting iParty "very cheap," said retail consultant Michael Tesler, of Norwell's Retail Concepts, but it's good news for iParty's landlords and vendors.

"IParty may have been struggling paying its bills and may be in arrears in some of these situations," Tesler said. "In a bankruptcy case, the landlords would get killed. It would be worse for vendors."

In regulatory documents, iParty said the total transaction has an expected "enterprise value" — a measure of what the market believes a company's ongoing operations are worth — of about $35 million, excluding deal expenses.

Rockaway, N.J.-based Party City is the nation's largest party supply retailer with 750 stores, while iParty has 54 stores in New England and Florida.

"Party City is a leading player in our industry, and we could not be more pleased with this outcome of the strategic review we initiated last year and the return it affords to all of our stockholders" said iParty chief Sal Perisano.

In October, iParty took a devastating blow from Hurricane Sandy — the second straight year that a major storm disrupted its crucial Halloween seasonal sales period.

Party City CEO Gerald Rittenberg said the acquisition will accelerate the chain's growth in New England, where it has just five Connecticut stores. "We look forward to working together to expand our combined geographic footprint and brand presence on a national scale," he said.

The deal, expected to close in the second quarter, allows iParty to solicit superior proposals through March 31.

Boston private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners bought a majority stake in Party City last June.

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Home’s got room for fun, games

Call it the ultimate family dream house. This 20,000-square-foot home high atop Bald Hill in Andover has everything kids could want — a regulation-size indoor basketball court outfitted with a batting cage and a major-league pitching machine, an indoor pool with water slides, a home theater with stage, a room full of arcade machines — even a 10-pin bowling alley.

The current owners raised four children in the home, which despite its square footage does not feel like an egoistic McMansion. The rooms are well-scaled and the basketball court is subtly hidden behind a front colonnade and arched glass windows, with a separate entrance for holding neighborhood practices.

Built in 2003, the home has a tasteful olive cedar and fieldstone exterior and sits on four acres of land with a putting green and grass backyard the size of a football field and sporting panoramic views. It was on the market for $6.5 million but has just been reduced to $5.5 million, far less than the owner has invested.

Custom-milled cherrywood and mahogany door moldings and built-ins fill the home, along with engineered birch floors that have radiant heating in some rooms. There's a light-filled home office, a billiards room, formal dining room, large master bedroom suite and four other bedrooms with connecting Jack-and-Jill baths.

The cherrywood and Absolut black granite kitchen features a breakfast bar that seats nine, a two-sided gas fireplace, professional grade Wolfe appliances and an adjoining sunroom for informal dining.

The large sunken living room is divided by a coffered ceiling and soffits into several areas, with a large fieldstone wood-burning fireplace and a built-in media center. This room opens out onto a large deck with great views that has a built-in hot tub and professional putting green.

There's even a nanny/in-law suite on the first floor with a full bath.

But the home's highlights are the basketball court with a professional scoreboard and the indoor pool, bowling alley and locker rooms and a home gym below, which account for nearly 9,000 square feet of the home. There's a soaring cedar solarium at one end of the gym with water slides down to the pool.

The second-floor master bedroom suite has a seating area with glass doors out to a deck. There are two walk-in closets and a two-sided gas fireplace that overlooks a raised whirlpool tub in a marble-lined en-suite bathroom with a double granite-topped vanity and walk-in shower.

The other bedrooms are scattered throughout the second and smaller third floors, and there are two sets of laundry areas.

The basement has a finished game room with a bar, a home theater with rows of plush seats, and a second nanny/in-law suite. The arcade games are negotiable to buy.

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Budget cuts to hit military school districts first

FORT HOOD, Texas — Public schools everywhere will be affected by the government's automatic budget cuts, but few may feel the funding pinch faster than those on and around military bases.

School districts with military ties from coast-to-coast are bracing for increased class sizes and delayed building repairs. Others already have axed sports teams and even eliminated teaching positions, but still may have to tap savings just to make it through year's end.

But there's little hope for softening any future financial blows.

"Next year is scarier than this year," said Sharon Adams, chief financial officer for Muscogee County schools in Georgia. The district serves the U.S. Army's Fort Benning and could lose $300,000 in federal funding out of its $270 million in general funds before the end of the school — and more than four times that in 2013-2014.

The schools' losses will come from cuts to a federal program known as "Impact Aid" that supplements local property tax losses for districts that cover federal land, including military posts and Indian tribal areas. About 1,400 school districts serving roughly 11 million children nationwide — including nearly 376,500 students from military families — benefit from the aid, said Jocelyn Bissonnette, director of government affairs for the Washington-based National Association of Federally Impacted Schools.

Bissonnette said slightly more than 5 percent of funding would disappear from nearly all U.S. Department of Education programs under the automatic cuts. But while most of the reductions wouldn't take effect until next fall, Impact Aid could be immediately cut, with many districts failing to receive a scheduled payment in March.

In all, the U.S. Department of Education estimates districts receiving Impact Aid could see $60 million evaporate this school year.

"Classrooms will be fuller," said Sara Watson, principal of 810-student Meadows Elementary on Fort Hood, one of the world's largest military installations. Watson stressed that she doesn't yet know the full impact, but said an extra teacher for fifth and sixth grade science hired this year could be reassigned — which may mean squeezing kids into fewer classes.

Ninety-nine percent of parents at Meadows are in the military and a quarter of the teachers are married to active-duty personnel. But the campus is run by the school district in the surrounding community of Killeen, which has 52 campuses in all — including seven elementary and two middle schools on Fort Hood and about total 42,000 students.

As soldiers return from Iraq and Afghanistan, enrollment has swelled, increasing by 1,200 students annually in recent years — though next year likely will only see 500 additional students.

Overall, the district stands to lose at least $2.6 million in Impact Aid funding before the end of the school year under the automatic cuts. Superintendent Robert Mueller said the cuts amount to more than 50 teachers' salaries, roughly one per school, or five months' worth of district's electric bills — and may mean tapping into Killeen's cash reserves to cover expenses.

Other military districts have made pre-emptive cuts that now may not be enough.

In San Antonio, Randolph Field school district educates about 1,200 students from military families at the local Air Force base of the same name and draws 45 percent of its budget from Impact Aid. Officials this year eliminated high school math and science teaching positions and cut baseball, cross-country and swimming.

But even then, the district expected to get $5.3 million in Impact Aid. Randolph Field may now get about $1 million less — meaning it will have to use reserve funds to finish the year.

"If we get it, we'll end the year in the black," Lorrie Remick, the district's chief financial officer, said of the year's final Impact Aid payment. "If not, we'll have a deficit for the first time in our history."

In North Carolina, Cumberland County Schools superintendent Frank Till, whose district has a total budget of $450 million and includes Fort Bragg, said he may forfeit about $800,000 for the remainder of the fiscal year — but that his primary concern is what might happen next year, when the district could be out about $3.2 million.

"If October comes and they've not restored our money, we'll have to completely eliminate schools from service and certainly have to cut back on staffing," Till said. "We'll have to cut back services to some of our most disadvantaged kids."

He volunteered some advice to policymakers: "Go out to Camp David and don't come back until you have a plan."

Ronald Walker, superintendent of Geary County Schools USD 475 in Kansas, which serves Fort Riley, offered a harsher sentiment: "I think it's arrogant for leaders to turn their backs on our soldiers."

Walker anticipated an Impact Aid cut as the country flirted with the "fiscal cliff" in January, so delayed repairs on school roofs and air conditioning systems. But the coming funding reductions look worse than he prepared for — likely meaning living with longstanding school plumbing problems

"I'm just going to ignore them," Walker said, "and hope."

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Associated Press writers Michael Biesecker in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, contributed to this report.

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Boehner: No reason to block Keystone XL pipeline

WASHINGTON — A new State Department report is the latest evidence that the long-delayed Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada should be approved, supporters say.

The draft report, issued Friday, finds there would be no significant environmental impact to most resources along the proposed route from western Canada to refineries in Texas. The report also said other options to get the oil from Canada to Gulf Coast refineries are worse for climate change.

The new report "again makes clear there is no reason for this critical pipeline to be blocked one more day," said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. After four years of what he called "needless delays," Boehner said it is time for President Barack Obama "to stand up for middle-class jobs and energy security and approve the Keystone pipeline."

Environmentalists see the State Department report in a vastly different light.

They say it was inadequate and failed to account for climate risks posed by the pipeline. The report also is based on a false premise, opponents say — namely, that tar sands in western Canada will be developed for oil production regardless of whether the Keystone XL pipeline is approved.

"Americans are already suffering from the consequences of global warming, from more powerful storms like Hurricane Sandy to drought conditions currently devastating the Midwest and Southwest," said Daniel Gatti of the group Environment America. Production of oil from Canadian tar sands could add as much as 240 billion metric tons of global warming pollution to the atmosphere, Gatti said, a potential catastrophe that would hasten the arrival of the worst effects of global warming.

Gatti and other opponents said development of the vast tar sands is far from certain, despite assurances by the project's supporters.

"Tar sands can be stopped, and we are stopping it," Gatti said, citing a rally in Washington last month attended by an estimated 35,000 people. Project opponents also have blocked construction in Texas and Oklahoma and have been arrested outside the White House gate.

The pipeline plan has become a flashpoint in the U.S. debate over climate change. Republicans and business and labor groups have urged the Obama administration to approve the project as a source of jobs and a step toward North American energy independence. Environmental groups have been pressuring the president to reject the pipeline, saying it would carry "dirty oil" that contributes to global warming. They also worry about a spill.

The State Department review stopped short of recommending approval of the project, but it gave the Obama administration political cover if it chooses to endorse the pipeline in the face of opposition from many Democrats and environmental groups. State Department approval of the 1,700-mile pipeline is needed because it crosses a U.S. border.

The lengthy report says Canadian tar sands are likely to be developed, regardless of whether the U.S. approves the Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry oil through Montana, South Dakota, Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma.

The report acknowledges that development of tar sands in Alberta would create greenhouse gases but makes clear that other methods of transporting the oil — including rail, trucks and barges — also pose a risk to the environment.

The State Department analysis for the first time evaluated two options using rail: shipping the oil on trains to existing pipelines or to oil tankers. The report shows that those other methods would release more greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming than the pipeline. The Keystone XL pipeline, according to the report, would release annually the same amount of global warming pollution as 626,000 passenger cars.

A scenario that would move the oil on trains to mostly existing pipelines would release 8 percent more greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide than Keystone XL. That scenario would not require State Department approval because any new pipelines would not cross the U.S border.

Another alternative that relies mostly on rail to move the oil to the Canadian west coast, where it would be loaded onto oil tankers to the U.S. Gulf Coast, would result in 17 percent more greenhouse gas emissions, the report said.

In both alternatives, the oil would be shipped in rail cars as bitumen, a thick, tar-like substance, rather than as a liquid.

The State Department was required to conduct a new environmental analysis after the pipeline's operator, Calgary-based TransCanada, changed the project's route though Nebraska. The Obama administration blocked the project last year because of concerns that the original route would have jeopardized environmentally sensitive land in the Sand Hills region.

The administration later approved a southern section of the pipeline, from Cushing, Okla., to the Texas coast, as part of what Obama has called an "all of the above" energy policy that embraces a wide range of sources, from oil and gas to renewables such as wind and solar.

The draft report issued Friday begins a 45-day comment period, after which the State Department will issue a final environmental report before Secretary of State John Kerry makes a recommendation about whether the pipeline is in the national interest.

Kerry has promised a "fair and transparent" review of the plan and said he hopes to decide on the project in the "near term." Most observers do not expect a decision until summer at the earliest.

Canadian Natural Resource Minister Joe Oliver said Friday that Canada will respect the U.S. review process and noted the importance of the pipeline to the Canadian economy.

Obama's initial rejection of the pipeline last year went over badly in Canada, which relies on the United States for 97 percent of its energy exports.

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Associated Press writers Rob Gillies in Toronto and Dina Cappiello in Washington contributed to this report.

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Follow Matthew Daly on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MatthewDalyWDC

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Samsung's $1B bill in Apple case reduced by $450M

SAN FRANCISCO — The two biggest — and bitterest — rivals in the smartphone market will have to endure another bruising trial after a federal judge ruled that jurors miscalculated nearly half the $1 billion in damages it found Samsung Electronics owed Apple Inc. for patent infringement.

U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh wiped out $450 million from the verdict and ordered a new trial to reconsider damages related to 14 Samsung products including some products in its hot-selling Galaxy lineup jurors in August found were using Apple's technology without permission. Koh said jurors in three-week trial had not properly followed her instruction in calculating some of the damages.

She also concluded that mistakes had been made in determining when Apple had first notified Samsung about the alleged violations of patents for its trend-setting iPhone and IPad.

"We are pleased that the court decided to strike $450,514,650 from the jury's award," Samsung spokeswoman Lauren Restuccia said.

Koh didn't toss out the jurors underlying finding that two dozen Samsung products infringed patents Apple used to develop its iPad and iPhone products. The new jury will be tasked with only determining what Samsung owes Apple.

Apple declined to comment on the Koh's ruling, which still did leave Samsung with a bill to just under $599 million. The judge said the tab will probably increase after the appeals of both companies are resolved.

Apple is seeking more damages and Samsung a complete dismissal of the case in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the Washington, D.C.-based court that handles all patent appeals. The new trial to recalculate the damages could also increase the award.

Still, the ruling was the second significant setback in Koh's courtroom since the headline grabbing verdict was announced.

In December, Koh refused to order a sales ban on the products the jury found infringed Apple's patents. She said Apple failed to prove the purloined technology is what drove consumers to buy a Samsung product instead of an Apple iPhone or iPad. Samsung says that it is continues to sell only three of the two dozen products found to have infringed Apple's patents.

After a three-week trial closely followed in Silicon Valley, the jury decided that Samsung ripped off the trailblazing technology and sleek designs used by Apple to create its revolutionary iPhone and iPad. Jurors ordered Samsung to pay Apple $1.05 billion.

Apple filed another lawsuit last year accusing Samsung's newer line of products of continuing to use technology controlled by Apple. Koh has scheduled trial in that case for early next year. She has implored both companies on several occasions to settle their difference with little success.

Apple filed its patent infringement lawsuit in April 2011 and engaged legions of the country's highest-paid patent lawyers to demand $2.5 billion from its top smartphone competitor. Samsung Electronics Co. fired back with its own lawsuit seeking $399 million.

The jury found that several Samsung products illegally used such Apple creations as the "bounce-back" feature when a user scrolls to an end image, and the ability to zoom text with a tap of a finger.

Samsung has mounted an aggressive post-trial attack on the verdict, raising a number of legal issues that allege the South Korean company was treated unfairly in a federal courtroom a dozen miles from Apple's Cupertino headquarters. Samsung alleges that some of Apple's patents shouldn't have been awarded in the first place and that the jury made mistakes in calculating the damage award.

Samsung has emerged as one of Apple's biggest rivals and has overtaken it as the leading smartphone maker. Samsung's Galaxy line of phones run on Android, a mobile operating system that Google Inc. has given out for free to Samsung and other phone makers.

Apple and Samsung have filed similar lawsuits in eight other countries, including South Korea, Germany, Japan, Italy, the Netherlands, Britain, France and Australia.

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Apple shareholder drops lawsuit on preferred stock

SAN FRANCISCO — A disgruntled shareholder pressing Apple to create a new class of preferred stock has dropped a lawsuit that became a moot point after the iPhone and iPad maker changed the agenda at its annual meeting earlier this week.

Lawyers for hedge fund manager David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital notified U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan in a letter sent Thursday that they no longer plan to pursue the lawsuit . Sullivan closed the case, which began three weeks ago in New York.

Einhorn had already achieved his goal last week when Sullivan issued a preliminary ruling blocking an Apple Inc. proposal that would have required shareholder approval before preferred stock could be issued. Apple withdrew the proposal from the agenda at its annual meeting held Wednesday.

Two shareholders who attended the annual meeting said they were disappointed that they weren't able to vote in favor of a proposal, which they described as an example of sound corporate governance.

Shareholders had reason to be even more discouraged Friday as Apple's stock touched a new 52-week low, deepening a roughly six-month slide that has wiped out nearly $260 billion of the company's market value.

In another setback Friday, a federal judge in San Jose erased nearly half of the $1 billion in damages that a jury had awarded Apple last year in a patent infringement case against rival smartphone and tablet computer maker Samsung Electronics Co. The ruling lowered Samsung's bill to $599 million.

Apple might be able to ease the pain of the recent 39 percent drop in its stock price by doling out some of its $137 billion cash hoard to shareholders instead of letting the money idle at a time when interest rates at near record lows.

Einhorn, whose fund owns 1.3 million Apple shares, filed his lawsuit to preserve Apple's ability to issue dividend-paying preferred stock without having to take the extra step of gaining shareholder approval. He is pushing Apple to issue preferred stock that would guarantee a 4 percent dividend.

Apple CEO Tim Cook dismissed Einhorn's lawsuit as a "silly sideshow" at an investment conference a few weeks ago and again Wednesday at the company's annual meeting. During a question-and-answer session with shareholders Wednesday, Cook said Apple's board is in "very, very active discussions" about what do with all its cash.

Apple, which is based in Cupertino, Calif., also has said it is considering whether to introduce another proposal that would require a shareholder vote on preferred stock. If another proposal is submitted, it probably wouldn't happen until Apple holds another annual meeting next year.

The company last year instituted a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share on its common stock in a move that returns about $10 billion annually to shareholders. Apple's cash stash has grown by about $39 billion during the past year as customers bought its products in record numbers.

Despite Apple's success, investors are worried that the company's growth will soon taper off as it contends with fiercer competition in the smartphone and tablet computer market. The company also hasn't introduced a breakthrough product since the October 2011 death of Steve Jobs, Apple's charismatic co-founder and Cook's predecessor as CEO. It's most recent creation, the iPad, came out three years ago, raising concerns that Apple's well of innovation has run dry.

Cook sought to reassure shareholders that Wednesday's annual meeting, telling them that Apple is working on some "great stuff," including some products outside its core line-up of iPods, iPhones, iPads and Mac computers.

That vague promise hasn't excited Wall Street.

Apple's slumping stock fell to a new 52-week low of $429.98 on Friday before rebounding slightly to close at $430.47, down $10.93, or 2.5 percent. The shares hit a record high of $705.07 in September when the iPhone 5 went on sale.

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Consequence to cuts no one thought would happen

WASHINGTON — It's not the first time that government economic engineering has produced a time bomb with a short fuse.

Back in 2011, few lawmakers thought deep and indiscriminate spending cuts, totaling about $85 billion and now starting to kick in, were a smart idea.

The cuts are a reality largely because President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner failed to find a way to stop them.

History shows a long trail of unintended consequences from government actions — or inaction.

President Franklin Roosevelt won re-election in 1936 and believed the Great Depression was winding down.

Roosevelt and Congress thought it was time to cut free-flowing government spending and raise taxes. The Federal Reserve tightened its financial reins. But the fragile economy couldn't withstand the blows and the Depression roared back.

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Bernanke defends Fed's low-interest-rate policies

WASHINGTON — Chairman Ben Bernanke is standing by the Federal Reserve's low-interest-rate policies, cautioning that any move to raise rates prematurely could derail a still-modest economic recovery.

Bernanke also sought to calm fears that super-low rates risk igniting inflation or rattling investors, during a speech late Friday in San Francisco to an economic conference sponsored by the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank.

The central bank's low-rate policies are intended to encourage borrowing and spending to boost the economy. Higher rates would make borrowing more expensive.

Bernanke said the Fed's policies mirror what other central banks around the world are doing.

"Long-term interest rates in the major industrial countries are low for a good reason: Inflation is low and stable and, given expectations of weak growth, expected real short rates are low," he said.

"Premature rate increases would carry a high risk of short-circuiting the recovery, possibly leading — ironically enough — to an even longer period of low long-term rates," he said.

His comments amplified testimony he gave to Congress this week.

Critics, including some Fed regional bank presidents, have expressed concerns that the Fed may be raising the risk of inflation through its purchases of Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities.

As he did in his appearance before House and Senate committees this week, Bernanke sought to provide reassurance that the central bank is closely monitoring developments in financial markets to guard against such risks.

He said 2010 financial regulatory overhaul has forced banks to boost the required capital on hand to cushion against losses. The Fed also conducts annual stress tests to make sure that the nation's largest financial institutions have sufficient resources to survive adverse economic conditions, he said.

"We pay special attention to developments at the largest, most complex financial firms, making use of information gathered in our supervision of the institutions," Bernanke said.

During a question period after his speech, Bernanke was asked what he believed were the most significant lessons learned from the financial crisis. Prior to serving as Fed chairman, Bernanke had been a college professor at Princeton who researched mistakes made by the Federal Reserve during the Great Depression.

Bernanke said there was a need for better oversight of the financial system. And he noted that assets such as housing can quickly become significantly overpriced. But he said in many ways, the 2008 crisis had all the elements of a typical bank run.

"It was analogous to things that happened in the 19th century," said Bernanke. "It is just that it is a much more complex framework" today.

In his speech, Bernanke said current forecasts project long-term interest rates will rise only gradually in the next several years. Rates for 10-year Treasury bonds might rise by between 2 and 3 percentage points between now and 2017, he said. The 10-year Treasury is currently trading around 1.9 percent.

But Bernanke also referenced a time in the past when the Fed began tightening credit and rates rose more rapidly. In 1994, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose more than 2 percentage points in just 12 months, he noted.

He said this increase reflected an unexpected acceleration in the pace of economic growth and signs of building inflation pressures.

Bernanke said such a big increase in one year was at the "upper end" of what private forecasters are predicting could happen when the Fed begins tightening interest rates this time. And he said the Fed's ability to communicate its future moves to markets have improved considerably since 1994.

By providing greater clarity about the future course of interest rates, Bernanke said the Fed's improved communication efforts should reduce the risk that market misperceptions about the Fed's intention "would lead to unnecessary interest rate volatility."

The Fed said at its January meeting that it will not halt its bond buying until it has seen a substantial improvement in the labor market.

In December, it set a goal of keeping its key short-term interest rate near zero until unemployment has fallen below 6.5 percent. Unemployment in January stood at 7.9 percent and many economists believe it will not drop below 6.5 percent until late 2015 at the earliest.

The Fed's low-interest-rate policies were approved on an 11-1 vote at the January meeting, although minutes of those discussions showed that a minority of Fed officials expressed concerns about the current level of the bond purchase program.

However, Bernanke's appearances before Congress this week and in his Friday speech sent a strong signal that he still believes the low-rate policies are needed to provide support for an economy still burdened by high unemployment.

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Bernanke defends Fed's low-interest-rate policies

WASHINGTON — Chairman Ben Bernanke is defending the Federal Reserve's low-interest rate policies and seeking to calm fears that super-low rates risk igniting inflation or rattling investors.

Bernanke says any Fed move to raise rates prematurely could derail what is still a modest U.S. economic recovery. The central bank's low-rate policies are intended to encourage borrowing and spending to boost the economy. Higher rates would make borrowing more expensive.

Bernanke says the Fed's policies mirror what other central banks around the world are doing. His comments, which amplified testimony he gave to Congress this week, were delivered to a Fed conference in San Francisco.

Critics, both inside and outside the Fed, say they fear that the Fed may be raising the risk of financial instability.

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For Fla. citrus crop, it's been a tough year

For Fla. citrus crop, it's been a tough year

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — It's been a difficult year for Florida's citrus crop, with a warm, dry winter; citrus greening; and a heavy crop load.

Lots of fruit dropped from the trees this year, which means a chunk of the state's crop is unsellable.

The total impact of citrus in Florida's economy is about $9 billion a year, and bumpy years like this one can set farmers on edge.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is forecasting declines for this year's crop. At the beginning of the season, officials predicted a total citrus yield of 154 million boxes of fruit, but that forecast was downgraded in February to 141 million boxes.

Most of Florida's biggest crop, Valencia oranges, is used for juice. Because of a surplus last year, consumers shouldn't see a price increase.

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