Israel's farmers are making hay as the sun shines in the Middle East and storms whip at California, the source of most things orange in the U.S.

The icy weather and pounding precipitation destroyed 70% of the state's citrus crop, and counting.

The damage in California, which is the world's largest citrus producer, is estimated at a billion dollars.

How does Israel benefit? Japan is taking advantage of the citrus crisis as an opportunity to renew its imports from Israel for the first time since 1988, says Tal Amit, head of the citrus sector at Israel's Plants Production and Marketing Board.

Japan had stopped importing citrus from Israel for economic reasons. But recently Israeli farmers received orders to ship 800 tons of oranges a week.  

Amit said yesterday that he expected additional citrus orders by Japanese and South East Asian markets. He doesn't believe the shortfall in California would affect prices here, though.

This potential boon comes at a point where citrus prices have climbed considerably over the past year.

During the third week of January, retail prices of red grapefruit were 33 percent above the same period last year. Similarly, prices are up for white pomellos (19 percent), red pomellos (35 percent), and pomelits (78 percent).

In the wake of the disaster, Spain and Morocco, both major citrus suppliers to the European Union, decided to redirect a considerable share of their crops to the U.S., leaving the EU out in the cold.