As it hopes for a warm winter, Florida struggling citrus industry could be showing signs of recovery from the devastation of Hurricane Ian and progress in the decades-long fight against citrus greening disease.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Friday revised a forecast for the 2023-2024 citrus growing season by upping projections for grapefruit and specialty fruits, which are mostly tangerines and tangelos. The projection for oranges remained unchanged from the season’s initial forecast in October.
The combined projections are nearly 30 percent ahead of last season’s production, which was hammered by Hurricane Ian and a winter freeze. But the overall forecast total for 2023-2024 is just over half the production amount from the 2021-2022 season.
Also, the projected total remains closer to production in the 1930s than in the 1990s, before citrus greening began to ravage groves and development pressures exploded for land.
Shannon Shepp, executive director of the Florida Department of Citrus, called Friday’s update another indicator that a more integrated and innovative approach to combating citrus greening as an industry is having an impact.
While there are still challenges ahead, these forecasts are a foundation for optimism that we now feel across the communities that make up Florida’s iconic citrus industry, Shepp said.
