Harold Edwards: No, I’d be pleased to do that. Avocados have a very bright future, we believe, here in California. Their seasonality comes out in a window that is very opportunistic in the marketplace and really not very crowded from a foreign competition standpoint. Avocado start to be harvested typically anywhere around May and carry forward to call it March here in California. And that’s a nice little window where you’re not having a lot of pressure from Mexico or from Peru at that time. And also California fruit is capturing a nice little niche in the market where it actually trades at a premium to fruit from other origins. So, we’re very bullish on that and we believe that Ventura County provides the ideal opportunity to produce avocados.
So with that being said, our portfolio historically on our 3,000 acres of Ventura County production has been heavily weighted towards lemons, 2,000 acres of lemons, 1,000 acres of avocados. You’ll see that begin to invert, where you’ll see older lemons that are less productive being pulled and replaced with avocados. And it won’t be exactly this, but will invert to being a relationship more closely, resembling 1,000 acres of lemons and 2,000 acres of avocados.
Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Raj Sharma with B. Riley Securities. Please proceed with your question.
Raj Sharma: I just wanted to understand the strategic review that was announced. What does that imply in terms of the expansion of the One World of Citrus and also your farm management business? Would you be trying to get new customers? Could you expand a little bit on that?
Harold Edwards: Yes, happy to do that. So the exploration of strategic alternatives process, and we’ve stayed away from estimating a timeframe on how long that process will take, but the Board and management will be working on that over the next fiscal year. But as far as the operations go in the Company of increasing or expanding our farm management services business and expanding our grower partner business and also expanding our agency business with outside supplier partners will be full speed ahead and fully on expansion mode. And opportunistically, we’ll be working as hard as we can internally to expand each of those three parts of our business. We’ve just established our business plans for this fiscal year, and have the entire Limoneira management team and the entire team at Limoneira focused with strategic goals of expansion in each of those three areas.
Raj Sharma: And then I just wanted to understand, Phase 1 on the harvest side. So if that’s is that over, and the extra dollars that you get as a result of it, would those show up as cash flow for the Company? Or would those be rolled into as equity in Phase 2?
Harold Edwards: Great question. So, the answer is depending on how the Phase 2 deal gets structured. We had an opportunity to have a homebuilder do the upfront costs and grading before the interest rate environment changed. We would certainly seek to try to do that again. But if we have to do the infrastructure ourselves, which is about $30 million to $40 million of grading, it’s on the hillside and whatnot, that will be what takes us a little longer and that will be the equity role. So, it’s too early to tell really what that is. But the first moment that the JV gets cash will be the first moment that you guys hear about it and we’ll be putting it up. But I think you know, Lewis is conservative in their nature. We still have a bridge to build out there, which is about $15 million and we’re just finishing up a sports park.
But that’s why you constantly see these types of projects back end loaded, but we’re still very optimistic and think we’re conservative on pricing and cash flows going forward.
Operator: There are no further questions in the queue. I’d like to hand the call back to management for closing remarks.
Harold Edwards: Thank you very much for all of your questions and your interest in Limoneira. Happy holidays, and have a great rest of your day.
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today’s teleconference. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time and have a wonderful day.
