Florida’s orange crop is expected to plummet, even before destruction due to Hurricane Ian is taken into account.
The Department of Agriculture is forecasting that the crop will decline to levels that haven’t been seen since the 1940s.
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Only 28 million oranges will be produced in the sunshine state during the 2022-2023 period, 32% less than the previous season, according to the USDA. During the 2019-2020 growing season, 67.4 million oranges hailed from Florida.
The estimated number of bearing trees for non-Valencia oranges will be down 8%, while the number of trees bearing Valencia oranges is expected to fall by 4%.
“We completed all our objective measurements prior to the arrival of Hurricane Ian, which arrived the 26th and 27th [of September],” said Mark Hudson, USDA principal statistician, per Florida Politics. “We did not have the time to go back and get updated measurements, so it’s based solely prior to Ian.”
The crop has been declining for years due to a deadly citrus disease known as citrus greening. As of this summer, almost all citrus groves in Florida were infected. For the past decade, orange output has fallen due to the scourge.
It’s unclear how much the Category 4 hurricane will further affect the growing season.
Orange and tangerine prices already jumped 14.4% since August 2021 as inflation rages on, and the limited crop will likely cause prices to rise more.
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Citrus groves faced damage due to Ian, which steamrolled Florida at the end of September.
“This is gonna be a tough event for Florida growers,” Florida Citrus Mutual CEO Matt Joyner told Supply Chain Drive. He noted that the storm tore through some of the highest citrus-producing counties.
