Florida Freeze and Citrus Impacts
Tim Hammerich
News Reporter
Areas of Florida’s citrus belt have had to endure a couple of freeze events this winter, leading to concern about how much production will be impacted. USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey says it’s too early to quantify the damages, but Valencia oranges and some grapefruit varieties could effected.
Rippey… “ North of Lake Okeechobee and Northwest of Lake Okeechobee temperatures, many locations in the lower to middle twenties across interior locations, and that is right across the heart of Florida's citrus belt. It is expected that in some of the areas where the ICE application was not particularly even, there may have been some damage. One crop of citrus that is especially vulnerable because it's not generally ready to be harvested this time of year would be the Valencia orange crop that also extends to some of the grapefruit varieties.”
Anthony Prillaman of the National Agricultural Statistics Service said their objective measurement survey will be updated to reflect any production changes in April.
Prillaman… “ We'll have that objective measurement survey as of April, and we'll also start getting administrative data. So we'll start looking at information coming outta the state in terms of actual boxes harvested. So that will be one key piece of information that we use in publishing our estimates.”
The Florida citrus industry has declined substantially in the past couple of decades.
