Citrus industry, ‘decimated’ by greening, clings to hope, Simpson says

by Jay Waagmeester, Florida Phoenix
February 11, 2025

A pathway still exists to rebuild a “robust” citrus industry through continued research and state support, notwithstanding grave environmental challenges, Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson insisted to a Senate committee last month. 

Hurricanes, real estate development, and citrus greening contributed to a 90% citrus industry decline in Florida over the past 20 years.  According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Florida farmers produced nearly 300 million boxes of citrus in 2004. By 2024, harvests yielded about 20 million boxes. The forecast for 2025 is 14.1 million boxes, according to the USDA. 

Citrus greening, the insect-carried tree disease that first hit Florida in 2005, has “decimated” the industry, Simpson told the Senate Agriculture Committee on Jan. 14. Psyllids, or plant lice, infect citrus trees, damaging yields and ultimately killing the tree.

In 2019, citrus farmers reported that about 80% of their trees were infected. 

“Losing the citrus industry is not an option,” Matt Joyner, CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual, an industry group, said during the committee hearing. 

Killing psyllids

There is good news: The University of Florida last month announced its researchers have “one of the most promising discoveries to date” related to citrus greening. 

Those researchers genetically modified trees to kill baby psyllids that make contact with the plant by producing a protein toxic to the bug. They hope to begin field tests in “about a year,” meaning the university is “a few years away” from confirming the effectiveness of the method.

“The only way we’re going to solve [citrus greening] is to continue to plant and see what works. And unfortunately, it takes three to five years before we get to the answers after we plant,” Simpson said. 

Joyner figures the “gold standard” will be a tree resistant to greening, or a tree, like UF just announced, that kills psyllids, preventing the bugs from spreading the disease. 

Keep growing

Research is “critical,” Joyner said, “but replanting is critical as well.”

“We’ve got extensive infrastructure in this state that requires us to produce boxes of oranges to keep it going,” he said, including nurseries and packing plants.

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Simpson advocated for the Citrus Research and Field Trials program (CRAFT), a Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services support organization that researches management practices.

“If we continue with the CRAFT program and the gains that we’re making with the various rootstocks and a citrus greening-resistant tree, I believe we can have a robust citrus industry,” Simpson said. Expanding production to 50-70 million boxes per year in 10 years, “maybe that spells success,” the commissioner said.

The citrus industry was worth about $7 billion in the 2020-2021 fiscal year, according to University of Florida researchers. 

“Everybody thinks of beaches and Mickey Mouse in the state of Florida, but agriculture, citrus and others, is the heart of this industry, it’s the backbone of this industry,” Joyner said.

Hurricane impacts

Hurricanes inflicted nearly $1 billion in Florida agriculture production losses in 2024, a year when three hurricanes made landfall in the state, according to UF researchers.

2024 agriculture production losses could near $1 billion, researchers say 

Total agricultural production losses for the 2024 hurricane season are estimated at between $402.3 million and $975.8 million, with the third storm, Hurricane Milton, costing up to $642.7 million. 

Forty-one counties experienced at least tropical storm conditions during all three 2024 events. Taylor, Lafayette, Dixie, and Suwannee counties faced hurricane conditions during Debby and Helene — areas that had already experienced Idalia in 2023 and Ian in 2022. 

Exiting the industry

Damaged crops paired with the thirst for land development have driven producers out of the industry, such as Alico Inc. The company, which operates in eight counties, said it will cease citrus production after this season. 

Alico owns more than 50,000 acres of agricultural land but in the face of “increasing financial challenges from citrus greening disease and environmental factors for many seasons” henceforth “will focus its resources on creating new opportunities for profitable growth while also acting prudently on behalf of shareholders.”

“The impact of Hurricanes Irma in 2017, Ian in 2022, and Milton in 2024 on our trees, already weakened from years of citrus greening disease, has led Alico to conclude that growing citrus is no longer economically viable for us in Florida,” said John Kiernan, CEO of Alico, in a news release. 

Sen. Keith Truenow, a Republican from Tavares and chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said he recognizes the struggle.

“I think with everything facing the citrus industry, we have to figure out all the things we can do to encourage farmers to stay in the business,” he said.

Truenow added that property taxes and land classification regulations “need to be tightened up” so producers “don’t feel like they have to pay three or four times or five times the [tax] rate to hold on to their property. Everyone knows they’re not going to hold it very long at that rate because they’re already losing money for the last 20 years, basically.”

While Florida’s population grows, and property values increase while farmers wait for a solution to greening, “it can be a real allure to sell these acres for what they’re worth,” Joyner said. “Committed” growers, he continued, will have to wait years before research produces commercially productive groves.

Meanwhile, Alico said it expects to “entitle certain parcels of its land for commercial and residential development.”

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