Southwest Florida’s economy is mostly driven by tourism, real estate & construction, and retail — as well as education, and some local industries. But agribusiness is an important part of the equation. Across Southwest Florida, the agriculture industry contributes more than $1 billion in direct sales and supports a $2 billion regional economy that employs nearly 19,000 people.
Crops like citrus, sugarcane, and vegetables make up the majority of what’s produced here. And what’s known as cow-calf ranches are also a large factor in the broader agribusiness story here.
But the citrus industry has taken some major hits in recent decades, including citrus canker and citrus greening. Couple those two huge challenges with rising land values and other economic factors like major hurricanes, and you’ll find that citrus production has declined by over 90% since 2003. But Southwest Florida is a great place to produce food and other ag products — that's if growers are able to remain profitable.
In order to assess what local growers and producers think about the future of Southwest Florida’s agriculture industry, Florida Gulf Coast University’s Center for Agribusiness recently wrapped up a large study titled “Agribusiness in Southwest Florida: The Next 25 years.” A team of researchers conducted in-depth interviews with representatives from 30 local farm operations and compiled what they found in the new report. I spoke with the study’s three co-authors recently to get an overview of what came out of those conversations...
Guests:
Dr. Fritz Roka, director of the Florida Gulf Coast University Center for Agribusiness
Ron Hammel, former vice president & general manager of the Gulf Citrus Growers Association and a longtime citrus industry leader
Dr. Barry Goodwin, agricultural economist at North Carolina State University and FGCU Presidential Fellow
Click here to download the study.
Click here to listen to our conversation when the study was launching in April, 2023.
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