Florida Citrus Mutual said the initial citrus crop forecast for the 2024-2025 harvest season, released Oct. 11th by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), does not reflect the damage caused by Hurricane Milton across central and south Florida this week. 

The federal agency forecasted Florida's orange output to be 15 million boxes this season, 1.4 million boxes of grapefruit, and 200,000 boxes of tangerines and tangelos. The USDA release forecast of 15 million boxes is nearly three million boxes less than the total production of Florida citrus during the 2023-2024 harvest season, which was 17,960,000 boxes.

In a press release, Matt Joyner, executive vice president and CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual, said the forecast for the season is extremely discouraging, especially after Hurricane Milton swept through Florida's citrus belt this past week.

"Citrus growers were optimistic about the health of their groves and were hopeful for the prospect of a fruitful season. After years of battling citrus greening and trying to recover from Hurricane Ian two years ago, we were beginning to see tree health and bloom improve with the treatments and therapies deployed in the groves,” Joyner said.

He added that citrus growers are just beginning to assess the impacts and begin the recovery process from the Category 3 storm, and even though they are resilient, after all the trials of the industry like fighting citrus greening for nearly two decades and having three major hurricanes in the past seven years devastate the heart of our growing region, "growers are weary and will require support from our state and federal partners to continue the industry's comeback.” 

Joyner reassured readers that the organization remains committed to ensuring our growers have the resources they need to survive and even thrive once again.

The full extent of the damages caused by Hurricane Milton will take time to determine, as fruit drop can occur in the weeks following impact. Future forecasts are expected to account for damages in the production outlook.