U.S.: State orange crop to drop 21%

Florida seeking to add $2.5B for agriculture in disaster relief plan.

Florida’s struggling orange crop is expected to drop 21 percent this growing season, a percentage some believe could become larger as farmers continue to suffer the effects of Hurricane Irma.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday forecast that Florida will produce enough oranges to fill 54 million 90-pound boxes during the 2017-2018 season. That number would be down from a decades-low 68.7 million boxes in the past growing season.

The forecast isn’t good for an industry that has been in a steady decline due in large part to the impact of deadly citrus greening disease. Some growers reported crop losses of 40 to 100 percent after Irma swept through the state a month ago.

Senate Agriculture Chairwoman Sen. Denise Grimsley, R-Sebring, said that after Irma hit, the “fruit on the ground was so thick it was hard to walk through” in groves throughout her community.

The forecast, the first for the 2017-2018 growing season, also shows grapefruit production dropping 37 percent, with the harvest filling 4.9 million boxes. The red variety is projected to account for 4 million boxes.

Grapefruit during the past growing season filled 7.8 million boxes, of which 6.3 million boxes were filled by the red variety.

The forecast comes as state officials push Congress to add $2.5 billion for Florida’s agriculture industry to a disaster-relief proposal now under consideration.

Gov. Rick Scott and Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam met Wednesday with Florida’s congressional delegation in Washington, D.C.

A report from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services estimated that losses to the citrus crop and trees from Irma approach $761 million. The state’s vegetable, nursery, cattle, dairy, sugar, non-citrus fruit and timber crops all were affected by the massive storm.

Scott has activated a $25 million emergency-loan program to support citrus growers. Putnam said that could be duplicated or expanded to include other parts of the agriculture industry.

Putnam, a former congressman, said Thursday federal assistance may not be available until early next year if the Florida agricultural funding isn’t added to the current relief package.

Putnam questioned the new citrus forecast, saying he thinks the drop in orange production will be greater than 21 percent. Putnam’s pessimism is based on groves being underwater and fruit rotting and still falling.

Putnam also recalled that an initial forecast in 2004, when the state went through a series of hurricanes, projected numbers that were 16 percent higher than the final yield.

Another concern for the agriculture industry is that while an influx of foreign citrus and commodities could keep prices from rising at the market this season, foreign growers finding buyers in Florida could spell long-term suffering for the state’s growers, Putnam added.