- It’s citrus season in Florida, but experts predict production will drop.
- I spoke to citrus growers here to see how they’re performing.
- Watch the video to see what's behind the expected drop.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
The U.S. Department of Agriculture expects a drop in estimated production for this year's citrus harvesting season.
They believe this is due to citrus greening and weather conditions including previous hurricanes that disrupted some of the citrus groves.
Jamake Robinson owns Just Fruits and Exotics with his family where he spoke to Garden Club about growing citrus plants. Robinson says the weather plays a big role when growing citrus plants.
"So you have to just kind of read the weather and go with the flow."
They predicted producers will put out just 19.8 million boxes of oranges in Florida this season, and 2.4 million boxes of grapefruits.
Despite the predicted decrease in citrus production, it's not stopping Robinson from doing what he enjoys, growing citrus.
"I don't get too worried especially when we have this nice weather in spring you can't help but feel energized and motivated and inspired by off outside and you know that where I think a lot of people go to naturally."
Augita Guerrero, also known as The Tomato Lady sells fresh produce in Crawfordville. She says she's had less citrus fruits to sell this season because of storms and cold weather.
“The temperature is too cold and it destroys a lot of trees and they make less fruit.”
Now that the weather is starting to warm up here, Guerrero says she thinks she’ll start getting more citrus fruits.
“It’s not too cold right now and I think that we’ll be good for citrus.”
Like Guerrero, Robinson is hopeful the citrus supply will stay steady.
"I think that we can still pretty much count on things to work here."
The Florida citrus industry generates about $7 billion annually and employs around 33 thousand people.
