ORANGE CRUSH
Hurricane Irma pulverizes more than half of fruit crops in parts of Florida,
NEW YORK— Thousands of unripe oranges littered the ground at the Bereah Grove in Frostproof, Fla. Some trees were split, ripped from the ground or flooded in the aftermath of hurricane Irma. The grove is one of many owned by Alico Inc., the U.S.’s largest citrus producer, that were vulnerable in Irma’s path.
Joel Rivera, 65, an irrigation worker for Alico in Frostproof, said his biggest concern was the amount of fruit on the ground. “I’m not too worried about the trees themselves,” Rivera said. “One tree is down here, one is flooded there, but the hurricane took a lot of fruit off these trees.”
Alico, based in Fort Myers, Fla., said Tuesday that while most of the trees it has in eight Florida counties remain intact, there appears to be significant loss of fruit. In a statement, the company said it has yet to figure out the extent of the damage across the 19,000 hectares of orange groves it owns or manages. It may take several weeks, Alico said.
The storm that ravaged the state over the past week may have stripped off half the fruit on Florida’s trees, according to the state’s biggest citrus-growers organization, further reducing a harvest that was expected to be the smallest in 50 years. That could spell trouble for production next season in Florida, the biggest American source of juice oranges.
Orange-juice futures that were the lowest in 13 months as recently as July are up 21 per cent since Aug. 30, when the hurricane first began to emerge in the Atlantic Ocean.
“The damage probably was worse than expected, more extensive,” said Donald Selkin, a market strategist at Newbridge Securities, which manages around $2 billion (U.S.). “It may last into future crops.”
Irma, the most devastating weather event ever in Florida, arrived as growers were set to wrap up a harvest this month that would mark the fifth straight year of declining output. The spread of a tree-damaging disease called citrus greening, along with urban sprawl and damage from hurricanes, has led to fewer acres of citrus trees. Farming costs are rising, and Americans are drinking less orange juice than they once did.
Still, analysts were expecting pro- duction to rebound in the season that starts next month, after growers expanded techniques designed to limit the spread of greening.
The Florida Department of Citrus had been expecting the 2018 crop could reach 75 million boxes, each weighing 41 kilograms. Now, that recovery appears unlikely. The U.S. Department of Agriculture will issue its next crop forecast on Oct. 12.
“While the full extent of the impact is still being explored, this is definitely an event with very significant damage,” with next season’s crop likely to be “much less” than previously forecast, Shannon Shepp, the executive director of the Florida Department of Citrus, said in an emailed statement. “In some cases, growers are dealing with trees out of the ground.”
A lot of fruit was blown off trees, making it unusable, according to Florida Citrus Mutual, a Lakeland, Fla.-based organization that represents 8,000 grower members.
Michael Sparks, the group’s chief executive officer, said losses in the southwest region were reported at 50 per cent to 75 per cent, according to Citrus Industry magazine’s website. Nick Place, director of Florida Cooperative Extension Service in Gainesville, Fla., said in an interview that his agency’s survey of some growers showed losses of 30 per cent to 50 per cent.