Florida orange industry hit by hurricane, disease

NEW YORK (AFP) — Hit by Hurricane Irma and a citrus ailment known as “Yellow Dragon Disease,” Florida orange growers are bracing for potentially the worst harvest in more than a half century.

Forecasters are projecting a yield of 46 million boxes of oranges for the 2017-2018 Florida orange season, a drop of 33 percent from last year and the lowest output since at least 1944-1945, according to the US Agriculture Department.

Some areas have lost as much as 90 percent of their fruit due to winds from Irma, or root damage due to flooding.

“It may take months for growers to gauge the true scale of the impact of Hurricane Irma and years to fully recover,” said Shelley Rossetter, a spokeswoman for the Florida Citrus Department.

Florida oranges aren’t the only casualty of 2017, an unusually busy year for natural disasters in North America.

The massive “Thomas” wildfire, considered the second biggest fire ever in California, has damaged lemon and avocado crops in the region north of Los Angeles.

Hundreds of acres of producing land have burned, said Ken Melban, vice president of industry affairs at the California Avocado Commission.

“It’s a very unusual fire, some areas have been burned several times,” Melban said. “It has a tremendous impact on growers impacted by the fire.”