Florida citrus growers expressed optimism as the recent growing season topped forecasts and ended slightly ahead of the production from the prior season. The U.S. Department of Agriculture increased orange production by nearly 6 percent from an April forecast, putting it a little more than 5 percent above the 2024-2025 growing season.

Citrus Industry Investments

Legislators have invested more than $320 million in the past two fiscal years into the industry, which has faced a variety of pressures: hurricanes, winter freezes, encroaching development, changing drinking habits, and the ravages of a deadly bacterial disease called huanglongbing, also known as citrus greening.

Florida Citrus Mutual Executive Vice President and CEO Matt Joyner credited growers who have stuck it out for more than two decades amid the statewide reduction in land used for citrus and as the state lost its industry dominance over Texas and California. The budget for the current fiscal year recently signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis included $160 million for citrus research and field trials, $20 million for citrus nursery and packing equipment grants, and $15 million for marketing efforts by the Department of Citrus.

Industry Production

The numbers out from the USDA show the industry producing enough oranges to fill 12.92 million industry-standard 90-pound boxes. Grapefruit came in this season at 1.35 million boxes, and the specialty crops landed at 460,000 boxes. Lemon production in Florida was put at 900,000 boxes, the same as in the April forecast, and up from 670,000 boxes in the 2024-2025 growing season.

Original reporting: WPBF West Palm Beach — read the source article.