Citrus industry withers as Florida's groves flounder

Despite the best efforts and hopes of the citrus industry, hurricanes and a bacteria continue to batter Florida's diminished defining crop.

  • By Louis Llovio
  • | 5:00 a.m. January 17, 2025
  • | 0 Free Articles Remaining!
Florida's first citrus was planted in 1500.
Florida's first citrus was planted in 1500.
Photo by Stefania Pifferi
  • Florida
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Bill Eshenbaugh, the longtime and well-known Florida land broker, remembers driving across central Florida when he first moved here from Pennsylvania.

It was January 1983. 

 

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