Losses from Hurricane Irma last year sent the value of the 2017-18 Florida citrus crop plummeting 41 percent. That’s a preliminary estimate of last season’s crop value released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture at an advisory committee composed of Florida growers. One of those growers — Larry Black, general manager of the Peace River Packing Co. in Fort Meade — expressed little surprise. “We knew the increase in price would not offset the loss of the crop,” said Black, whose company runs a packinghouse and more than 2,000 grove acres in Polk County. Allen Morris, a citrus industry economist and consultant based in Winter Haven, agreed with Black that increases in last season’s farm prices did not offset the lost income from a smaller, hurricane-damaged crop. The USDA set the total 2017-18 Florida citrus crop value at nearly $551.2 million, down from a revised estimate of $927 million for the state’s 2016-17 citrus crop. A year ago, the agency estimated the 2016-17 crop at $780.7 million. The revision was based on more complete farm price information from the juice processors and fresh fruit packinghouses that purchase the state’s oranges, grapefruit, tangerines and tangelos, said Mark Hudson, the head of the USDA’s Florida Field Office in Maitland. In another report, the USDA estimated citrus grove land heading into the 2018-19 season totaled 403,457 acres, down just 2 percent from last season. Despite an increase of 12,153 grove acres since last year’s census, the highest jump since 2009, the state lost 22,114 grove acres for a net subtraction of 7,961 acres. The good news is that the Florida tree count increased 0.7 percent to nearly 62.7 million despite the loss of acreage. A year ago, the state had 62.2 million commercial citrus trees. “What’s happening is growers are planting new groves at higher tree densities,” Morris said. Today growers typically plant 200 to 300 trees per acre in a new grove, he said. In the 1980s and 1990s, typical tree densities were 116 to 145 trees per acre. But Florida may have fewer commercial citrus acres than the USDA numbers indicate, said Ellis Hunt, an executive with his family’s company, Hunt Bros Inc., a Lake Wales-based grower and packinghouse operator. That’s because growers have not yet plowed up groves in Southwest Florida damaged by Irma that have no economic viability, Hunt said. Hunt Bros. has more than 5,000 grove acres, divided about evenly between Polk and Southwest Florida. The company’s Southwest Florida grove had significantly more tree losses, he added. Irma made landfall in that area, generating the highest winds that knocked over rows of trees. “We probably bulldozed 100 acres, and there’s more to go,” Hunt said. “A lot of growers haven’t bulldozed their groves yet.” Many growers can’t afford the expense until they receive an estimated $500 million in federal disaster aid earmarked for the Florida citrus industry, he said. The application period did not begin until late July. “Nobody has received a penny yet, to my knowledge,” Hunt said. “The number one biggest event last season was Hurricane Irma almost a year ago, and growers are still waiting for relief.” Another factor affecting the citrus acreage and tree counts is the USDA’s procedure of surveying only about half the state each year, Hudson said. It actually surveyed 54 percent of the state’s citrus growing region for the current report. “There’s always a data lag, and it may show up next year,” he said. The final USDA tally on last season’s citrus crop is 49.58 million boxes of all varieties, down 37 percent from 78.23 million boxes picked in 2016-17. That breaks down to 45 million boxes of oranges, a 35 percent decline from the previous season; 3.9 million boxes of grapefruit, half the amount harvested the previous season; and 750,000 boxes of tangerines and tangelos, off 54 percent from 2016-17. Florida citrus acreage has declined continuously since 2000, at first under pressure from real estate developers buying groves for commercial development. Since 2005, the pressure has come from the fatal bacterial disease citrus greening. Symptoms of the disease include fewer fruit with smaller size and an increase in preharvest drop rates. Florida citrus production has dropped more than 70 percent since greening’s arrival. The USDA reported drop rates for 2017-18, which would include hurricane damage, at nearly 65 percent for early and mid-season oranges harvested from October to March and 52 percent for Valencia oranges picked from March to June. On a characteristically optimistic note among Florida growers, Black and Hunt predicted a much better 2018-19 citrus season in the grove and on the ledger books. “We’ve had great growing conditions. Tree health is good,” Black said. A lot will depend on how soon Florida citrus growers get federal aid to prepare for the coming season, Hunt said. “That’s critical,” he added. “Anybody who has taken care of their groves is going to have a better year. The trees are recovering nicely.” Source - http://www.heraldtribune.com