Florida Citrus Industry Continues 19-Year Decline

LAKE WALES – By Thursday, the continued decline of Florida’s commercial citrus industry, as reported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, surprised nobody.

“Nothing was a surprise,” said George Hamner, president of Indian River Exchange Packers, a grower with several thousand grove acres and a Vero Beach packinghouse. “We expected decline. We just hope to live long enough to see a turnaround.”

Total citrus acreage continued its 19-year decline with another 3 percent fall in grove land to 501,396 acres compared to 515,147 acres last year. Those groves also had 2 percent fewer trees since 2014 with a total of 66.9 million trees, down from 68.1 million trees a year ago.

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