Florida citrus

Still recovering from Hurricane Ian, Florida’s citrus industry is expected to see an increase in production after last year’s storm-damaged crop.

Numbers released Wednesday confirmed that Florida’s 2022-2023 citrus season was the worst in nearly a century, as growers tried to recover from an early-season hurricane that exacerbated industry struggles.The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Wednesday issued a final report that showed a huge dropoff in production from the 2021-2022 season. The industry would have to go back to the 1929-1930 season to find comparable numbers.

Florida citrus officials are promoting the “grit of this industry” as the growing season is set to close with the lowest production in nearly a century.But they say growers are getting more anxious while continuing to wait for federal assistance approved after Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Nicole uprooted trees and flooded fields last fall.

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The U.S. Department of Justice says fewer acres were used during the last citrus season, which was the worst for orange production in the last eight decades.

Despite some frost and overnight temperatures as low as 27 degrees in some pockets of Southwest Florida last weekend, Florida’s vegetable and citrus industries are reporting minimal damage.

New technology being tested by researchers at UF/IFAS to help Florida farmers reduce their costs as much as possible in order to try and stay profitable in the face of what’s called ‘citrus greening.'

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has set aside the EPA's registration of aldicarb for use on Florida citrus groves. The systemic pesticide and known neurotoxin, manufactured by AgLogic, will not be allowed for use on Florida citrus.

An anthropologist pursuing his Ph.D. at Brown University spent the past few months researching the H-2A guest worker program in Florida’s citrus industry.…

Florida U.S. Senator Marco Rubio met with Southwest Florida citrus growers Friday in Immokalee to discuss challenges facing the industry and how the…