- March 28, 2024
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The Florida orange crop output could fall 9% from last season due to citrus greening disease, according to a new forecast report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The forecast projects the statewide output for the 2012-2013 season will be 133.4 million orange boxes, according to a release from Florida Citrus Mutual, a Lakeland-based industry lobbying group. Florida produced 146.7 million boxes of oranges in the 2011-2012 season.
“This year's crop really shows the devastating effects of HLB, or citrus greening disease,” Florida Citrus Mutual Executive Vice President and CEO Michael Sparks says in the statement. “We had severe fruit drop and a lot of citrus from stressed trees with HLB ended up on the ground.”
Adds Sparks: “If anything, this season provides stark evidence that growers, scientists and the state and federal governments need to work together to beat this disease and save the $9 billion Florida citrus industry and the 76,000 jobs it supports. The ongoing research looks positive and I'm optimistic it will ultimately find a solution to HLB, but at this time there is no cure.”
The USDA produces an orange crop estimate every October and revises it monthly, through the end of the season in July. The original 2012-2013 estimate, before the impact of HLB, was 154 million boxes, according to Florida Citrus Mutual.