Citrus growers still optimistic after report shows lowest production in more than a century
Citrus growers still optimistic after report shows lowest production in more than a century
FOX 13's Carla Bayron reports.
POLK COUNTY, Fla - The 2024-2025 citrus production season ended with 14.52 million boxes of citrus, the lowest total since 13.928 million boxes were filled during the 1919-1920 season.
Orange production was down nearly 33% from the 2023-2024 season. Grapefruit production was down 27%, while tangerines and tangelos were down 11%.
Why you should care:
Matt Joyner, the CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual, says production has declined over the decades because of citrus greening and hurricanes.
"Obviously, that's difficult on the farmer's bottom line as they look to reinvest and rebuild after multiple seasons with hurricanes and other things," said Joyner. "We need to get our production up not just for the producer and grower but for the infrastructure this industry supports."
Big picture view:
State lawmakers have stepped in with a record-breaking investment - nearly $140 million to help growers fight back.
That includes money for research, new disease -resistant trees, grove management, new packing equipment and even new marketing tools.
Florida Senate President Ben Albritton, a multigenerational citrus grower himself, helped secure the historic funding.
"Over the last 15 or 20 years, we have watched that industry just be pummeled by citrus greening. The state productivity going from over 240 million boxes to between 15 and 20 million boxes this year, is prima facie evidence of what the impact of that has been," said Albritton.
What's next:
Joyner says investment into research has helped improve tree health and growers have been replanting lost trees.
Even though production of the state's signature commodity is down, it's not unprecedented in the history of the industry so growers are resilient.
"The orange is what built this state in a time when nothing else was going on. It still a 7 billion dollar economic impact to the state of Florida," he said.
The Source: FOX 13's Carla Bayron gathered the information for this story.