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With a major grower set to exit the business, Florida's struggling citrus industry saw little change in a production forecast for the hurricane-damaged growing season.
Overall, the industry is facing a harvest that is nearly 20 percent lower than what was projected prior to Milton’s impact in mid-October.
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WATCH HEREThe U.S. Department of Agriculture released an updated forecast that kept projections for orange and grapefruit production the same as in a December forecast. The December numbers were the first projections after Hurricane Milton pounded citrus-growing areas in October.
Meanwhile, the forecast lowered projections for specialty crops, mostly tangerines and tangelos, by about 14 percent.
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Overall, the industry is facing a harvest in the 2024-2025 season that would be 19.64 percent lower than what was projected before Milton hit the state.
It also would be 33 percent below the 2023-2024 harvest, which itself was a 94-year low — and would be the lowest overall since the 1918-1919 growing season.
Matt Joyner, executive vice president and CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual, said the numbers mostly “holding steady” might be a positive for the rest of the season.
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“I anticipated that we might see another slight downward trend,” Joyner said. “It’s not a lot better, but holding steady is a victory right now.”
The industry has been devastated the past few years by a series of hurricanes, with the blows from Hurricane Ian in 2022 and Hurricane Milton last year particularly damaging.
The industry also has suffered from the constant pressure of residential and commercial growth and Huanglongbing, a bacterial disease known as citrus greening.
