When you buy orange juice or other citrus products at the grocery store, you’ll probably spend more money.
A new forecast says that Florida’s citrus crop will drop by a lot this growing season.
The US Department of Agriculture says that a drop in the amount of citrus grown in Florida would make this season one of the worst since World War II.
The manager of Meriwether Farms & Citrus Groves, Olivier Welscher, said, “It’s a numbers game.”
Florida citrus growers are worried because of two hurricanes, a holiday cold front, and now a prediction that production will go down.
According to a new report from the USDA, the Sunshine State is expected to grow 18 million boxes of oranges this year.
That’s two million less than what was predicted in December.
It would be one of the lowest in the last more than 80 years.
“You’ve probably already noticed that orange juice isn’t cheap,” Welscher said.
Meriwether Farms and Citrus Groves in Sanford are run by Welscher.
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“You can just drive south on State Road 27 in Lake County. It used to be all groves, but now you don’t see any, and many of them are being turned into houses, which has a direct effect on the amount of crops that can be grown “Welscher said.
His groves just got back to normal after being flooded by Hurricane Ian.
Welscher said, “You can see that the trees are more stressed than they have been in years.”
And for years, farmers have tried to keep dangerous diseases from getting into their fruit.
Welscher said, “The greening disease is caused by a bacteria that has a huge effect on the health of trees, the quality of their fruit, and the amount of crops they produce.”
In part of a statement, Florida Citrus Mutual’s CEO said:
“The forecast is scary, but it doesn’t come as a surprise given the problems our industry has been facing. Still, with new research and tools to fight greening and rebuild our industry, we are still hopeful “Florida Citrus Mutual CEO said in a statement.
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