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Florida's citrus crop forecast takes another hit
The seasonal forecast for Florida’s struggling citrus industry got squeezed further Wednesday to a level not seen since before the country entered World War II.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture reduced the projected orange crop by 5.3 percent from the February forecast and the grapefruit crop by 4.9 percent.
The forecast is the latest sign of trouble for an industry that has been on a downward trajectory for nearly two decades because of deadly citrus greening disease and pressure from development.
The forecast estimated state growers will produce enough oranges to fill 41.2 million 90-pound boxes, the industry’s standard measurement.
That is down from 43.5 million boxes in the February forecast and an estimate of 47 million boxes in the season’s first forecast in October.
Two decades ago, the industry produced 230 million boxes of oranges, with all citrus production at 287.2 million boxes.
Projected grapefruit production went down in the new forecast from 4.1 million boxes to 3.9 million boxes, while specialty crops --- primarily tangerines and tangelos --- remained unchanged at 800,000 boxes.
The overall citrus crop would fill 45.9 million boxes. That would be the smallest amount since 43.99 million boxes were produced in the 1939-1940 season.
The Hurricane Irma-ravaged 2017-2018 season finished with about 49 million boxes. State citrus officials say they are taking steps to address issues such as citrus greening, also known as Huanglongbing, or HLB.
“The Florida Citrus Commission is taking an active role in understanding the research surrounding greening, production of an HLB-tolerant or resistant tree, the industry’s capacity to recover, and looking for opportunities to enhance the speed of that recovery,” Shelley Rossetter, the commission's assistant director of global marketing, said in an email Wednesday.
“As far as the cause for reduced production, it’s the accumulation of challenges the industry has had in the last several years, including Hurricane Irma, HLB, and this year’s weather.”
Business Beat - Week of May 3rd
