Citrus Forecast

The citrus industry faces the smallest harvest this season in more than a century.

Florida's citrus industry got some bitter news Thursday as it enters the final months of the 2023-2024 growing season.

With citrus greening and real estate development, some Tampa Bay area residents said it's hard to find fresh squeezed orange juice at restaurants and stores like they used to.

Christa Court, director of the UF/IFAS Economic Impact Analysis Program, breaks down the citrus industry's impact on the local economy.

A forecast released Thursday says that Florida is expected to produce 20.5 million boxes of oranges during the 2023-2024 season, up from 15.8 million boxes last season.

An initial forecast for the growing season showed overall citrus production down a projected 31.8 percent from the past season. That came out before Hurricane Ian damaged crops.

Despite an increased demand for orange juice at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the industry has been on a downward projection for nearly two decades.

The industry has seen its production sharply decline the past couple of decades because of issues such as residential and commercial development, foreign imports and a devastating bacterial disease known as citrus greening.

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