LABELLE, Fla. — The citrus industry has been hit hard in recent years by citrus greening, freezes, as well as hurricanes like Irma and Ian. And now they once again pick up the pieces after Hurricane Milton.
“Well, we expect adversity, but this has been a little bit tough,” said Wayne Simmons, CEO of LaBelle Fruit Company, LCC.
Like many citrus growers in the state, the last several years have been tough for Simmons at with mother nature has thrown curve balls in all directions.
“Seems like we get a little bit ahead and we get one of these storms, just back to square one, starting over again,” said Simmons.
Simmons isn’t alone in feeling this way, with three major hurricanes affecting these groves in seven years. And in the case of Hurricane Milton growers had much larger fruit on the trees.
“When you have those kinds of winds coming across you are going to lose a lot of that fruit,” said Matt Joyner, CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual. “We were much further in and close to harvest. So that fruit was bigger, heavier, more susceptible, and hit the ground.”
And that fruit loss has been significant for some growers.
“I think holistically we are probably going to approach across the growing region as whole, somewhere in that 35-40% range,” said Joyner. “But you got counties that were majorly impacted where you got growers reporting upwards of 70 or 80% fruit loss.
For Simmons, his loss in LaBelle was closer to 10%. But he knows what it feels like for growers that lost a majority of their fruit.
“They had the production cost and carry cost in it,” said Simmons. “So, they will go another year. So that’s two years before any income comes in. And I don’t know of any business that can weather that kind of storm and not have any income coming in for two years and have expenses still going out.”
For growers there are still signs of hope as citrus greening treatments are working and there is late season citrus to be picked in the coming months.
“Hopeful,” said Joyner. “This season will tell the tale, but every indication is we are going to be able to rebound from this and continue to move forward. We think that tree health, therapies, and the things are doing for these trees is a big part of that.”
