Citrus forecast was pulp fiction

Revised estimate is lowest in decades

TALLAHASSEE Florida’s struggling and storm-battered citrus industry took another hit T this week as the orange crop forecast for the current growing season was reduced by 7.4 percent.

And industry officials anticipate the forecasts will continue to decline as the season progresses.

“Unfortunately, I don’t think this will be the last decrease we see,” said Shannon Shepp, executive director of the Florida Department of Citrus. “Hurricane Irma had widespread impact on our industry, and growers are still trying to pick up the pieces. High winds and flooding rains damaged already weakened trees making it even more difficult to hold on to the fruit that’s left.”

The projection from the Department of Agriculture is the Florida citrus industry U.S. that will produce enough oranges to fill 50 million 90-pound boxes and 4.65 million similar-sized boxes of grapefruit during the 2017-2018 season.

A month ago, the forecast for the already-dire season — following damage from Irma and years of losses from deadly citrus greening disease — was a decades-low 54 million boxes of oranges and 4.9 million boxes of grapefruit.

The latest numbers would result in a 27 percent decrease for oranges from the past season, with grapefruit production falling 40 percent.

Florida, which accounted for 49 percent of total U.S. citrus production in the past season, has been struggling for a decade against citrus greening, an incurable bacterial disease.

Throughout the decade before the disease was found, the state’s orange harvest annually topped 200 million boxes, with a high of 244 million boxes in the 1997-1998 season.

Irma quieted preseason optimism from growers, who reported crop losses of 30 percent to 70 percent from the September storm. Growers in Southwest Florida were hardest hit.

An estimate by the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services said the citrus industry accounted for $761 million of the $2.5 billion in damages suffered by the state’s agriculture industry from Irma.

Meanwhile, Gov. Rick Scott has announced he will ask for $21 million to help struggling citrus growers as part of his upcoming budget requests for the 2018 legislative session.