Florida’s citrus, fruit and vegetable crops seem to have escaped any widespread injury from a few of the coldest climate in years, officers with state growers associations mentioned Tuesday.
A cloud cowl helped shield citrus timber in areas the place the thermometer hovered round or beneath freezing, although there could also be pockets of harm, mentioned Matt Joyner, CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual.
“Indications to this point are that the trade fared pretty nicely,” Joyner mentioned in an e mail. “It seems that we have been proper on the sting of what might have been a devastating occasion.”
Florida’s fruit and vegetable growers additionally reported no widespread injury to crops, although growers are nonetheless assessing the chilly climate’s impression, mentioned Christina Morton, director of communications for the Florida Fruit & Vegetable Affiliation.
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“Early stories are exhibiting growers have been fairly lucky contemplating how chilly it acquired and for a way lengthy it hung round,” Morton mentioned in an e mail.
Over the weekend, elements of the Florida Panhandle had wind chills that dipped into the one digits, and inside elements of central Florida had temperatures plunging as little as 27 levels Fahrenheit. At Tampa Worldwide Airport, the thermometer dipped beneath freezing for the primary time in nearly 5 years.
Florida’s citrus, fruit and vegetable crops seem to have escaped any widespread injury from a few of the coldest climate in years, officers with state growers associations mentioned on Dec. 27, 2022.
(AP Photograph/Lynne Sladky, File)
Florida is the first provider of contemporary fruit and veggies for the remainder of the nation throughout the winter, and growers final week harvested as a lot of their crops as attainable forward of the Arctic blast. Within the state’s midsection, the place blueberries, strawberries and blackberries are grown, growers used overhead irrigation to spray a protecting coat of ice across the fruit.
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Florida agriculture already was battered this fall by two hurricanes — Ian and Nicole. Hurricane Ian hit citrus groves exhausting, in addition to the state’s giant cattle trade, dairy operations, greens like tomatoes and peppers, and even a whole bunch of 1000’s of bees important to many growers.
Citrus is massive enterprise in Florida, with greater than 375,000 acres within the state dedicated to oranges, grapefruit, tangerines and the like for an trade valued at greater than $6 billion yearly. Most Florida oranges are used to make juice, and this season’s drastically decrease harvest, mixed with the slam from Ian, will press costs upward and pressure producers to rely much more closely on California and imported oranges from Latin America.