Florida’s Once-Signature Crop Is Shrinking Away Amid Disease
February 13, 2017 | 1 min to read
Things keep getting worse for citrus growers in Florida, where crop disease and slowing demand continue to threaten what used to be a signature industry in the sunshine state.
The state’s orange crop is poised to shrink to what could be the smallest harvest in five decades, according to Judy Ganes-Chase, president of J. Ganes Consulting in Panama City, Panama. There are signs that processors are handling less fruit than projected, underscoring why production could fall short of government estimates, she said.
Orange-juice futures have surged 30 percent in the past year in New York trading amid the supply woes. Florida’s crop has shrunk for years because of devastation from citrus greening. The crop disease causes fruit to shrivel or drop early from trees, often rendering it unfit for juice. Adverse weather in Brazil also curbed yields last year, helping to push prices for the beverage to an all-time high in early November.
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