The thousands of oranges scattered on the ground by Hurricane Ian’s fierce winds like so many green and yellow marbles are only the start of the disaster for citrus grower Roy Petteway. The fruit strewn about his 100-acre grove in central Florida since the storm swept through will mostly go to waste. But what are even worse are the flood and rain waters that weakened the orange trees in ways that are difficult to see right away. “For the next six months we'll be evaluating the damage,” Petteway tells the AP at his farm, where he estimates about a 40% crop loss. “You're going to have a lot of damage that will rear its head.”
Citrus is big business in Florida, with more than 375,000 acres in the state devoted to oranges, grapefruit, tangerines, and the like for an industry valued at more than $6 billion annually. Hurricane Ian hit the citrus groves hard, as well as the state's large cattle industry, dairy operations, vegetables like tomatoes and peppers, and even hundreds of thousands of bees essential to many growers. The orange forecast for 2022-2023, released Wednesday, puts production at about 28 million boxes, or 1.26 million tons, according to the US Agriculture Department. That's 32% below the year before and does not account for damage from the hurricane, which will surely worsen those numbers.
Most Florida oranges are used to make juice, and this season’s drastically lower harvest, combined with the still-unquantified slam from Ian, will press prices upward and force producers to rely even more heavily on California and imported oranges from Latin America. “This is a gut punch. There's no doubt about it,” said Matt Joyner, CEO of the Florida Citrus Mutual trade association. “You've really got about 72 hours to get the water off these trees before you start sustaining significant damage if not mortality. Trees need water to grow. They don't need to be standing in water.”
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Then there are the bees. The University of Florida estimates that about 380,000 known bee colonies were in the path of Hurricane Ian as it bisected the state. The storm not only damaged the beehives themselves, but also blew off blossoms, leading some bees to raid other colonies for the honey they need to eat. “Masses of honeybee colonies submerged in water are in distress,” the Florida Farm Bureau said in a statement. “Bee pollination is critical to the livelihood of our state's plants and crops, and is just one example of the long-term effects of this deadly storm.”
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