The state of America’s citrus industry is a tale of two coasts.
Florida’s industry is optimistic about turning things around, but for now, the sector is in a state of collapse after years of devastation by citrus greening disease and more frequent hurricanes. By contrast, growers in California have so far kept the disease out of commercial groves, and the industry there is flourishing.
Discovered in 2005, citrus greening kills trees, reduces yields, and harms the overall quality of the fruit. Since 2005, Florida’s citrus crop has fallen from nearly 300 million boxes at its peak to an estimated 18 million last year, the smallest crop since 1928, according to USDA data. The disease has been found in commercial groves in a few other states and in residential settings in California, the nation’s top citrus-producing state.
The decline of citrus in Florida has also had a devastating impact on U.S. production. In 2003-04, Florida was the nation’s top citrus-growing state with more than 13 million tons, well above California’s 2.9 million tons. That year, the U.S. citrus crop surpassed 16.3 million tons. Final USDA estimates for the 2022-23 crop, however show that U.S. citrus production was only 4.9 million tons, down 12% from the 2021–22 season and 72% smaller than the 2003-04 crop and the lowest production level for U.S. citrus in at least 50 years.
Citrus greening, also known as Huanglongbing (HLB), is a disease caused by a bacterium that spreads when the Asian citrus psyllid - a small, brown, winged insect - feeds on a tree’s leaves or the stems of the fruit. HLB affects a citrus tree’s vascular tissue, reducing nutrient uptake and the quality and quantity of the tree’s fruit.
Citrus greening was first observed in non-commercial citrus trees in south Florida in August 2005. By February 2010, the disease had spread throughout Florida’s traditional citrus-growing areas. It was then detected in Louisiana in 2008, and in Georgia and South Carolina in 2009. By 2012, HLB had been found in Texas and residential areas of California.
USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service estimates HLB has doubled production costs in Florida, where about 90% of the state’s oranges, Florida’s largest citrus crop, are used to make juice.
Matt Joyner, CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual, said “at one point, not only did Florida supply all of the (juice for the) domestic market, but we exported some as well.” Today, Joyner estimates that Florida fills about 60% of the U.S. demand for juice oranges, with imported orange juice, primarily from Brazil but also from Mexico, filling the remaining demand.
Matt Joyner, Florida Citrus MutualCalifornia now claims the top slot in U.S. citrus production, with approximately 92% of the fresh orange market in the United States. Last year, the state produced 44.5 million boxes of oranges, predominately for the fresh market, as well as 23 million boxes of lemons, another 23 million boxes of tangerines and mandarins, and 3,500 boxes of grapefruits.
In 2008, the first Asian citrus psyllid was documented in California in San Diego County in non-commercial trees. An estimated 60% of Californians have at least one citrus tree in their yard, making control of HLB in residential areas difficult. Today, areas of San Diego, Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties are under quarantine to help stop HLB’s spread, and commercial growers and nurseries within these areas must comply with a permitting process for transportation within and outside the quarantine zones.
Casey Creamer, CEO of Citrus Mutual California, said so far, California has not had a “single regulatory commercial find of HLB,” but that “the disease is present in the state and found in numerous backyards, including in Ventura County, close to commercial lemon production.”
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California’s Central Valley, which is surrounded by natural barriers, produces 80% of the state’s citrus, and the state has about 250,000 fruit-bearing acres. Since 2012, Creamer said citrus acreage has fallen only slightly, but as redevelopment of groves occurs with more productive trees, production has increased.
“The industry in California takes HLB very seriously. The industry has an aggressive program to find and eradicate the disease,” Creamer said. Growers, he added, pay $15 million to $18 million a year to keep HLB out of commercial groves.
In 2012, citrus greening was found in a commercial orchard in San Juan, Texas, and today 17 counties throughout the state are under quarantine. Quarantine zones include the Rio Grande Valley the Coastal Bend region and thee Houston area.
HLB is not the only challenge facing citrus growers, though. Multiple major hurricanes and freezes have also damaged citrus production over the last two decades, and development pressure has enticed some growers to sell their groves.
Florida and Texas growers remain in the path of an increasing number of hurricanes. In the 2004-05 season, four hurricanes crisscrossed Florida’s citrus-producing regions within a six-week period, leaving devastating production losses in their paths. In the 2017-18 season, citrus production losses from Hurricane Irma in Florida were estimated at $490 million. Three years later, Hurricane Ian destroyed an estimated $247 million worth of Florida citrus.
California’s severe storms, often caused by atmospheric rivers, can also damage the crop. Last year, in California’s Tulare County, a severe storm hit during orange harvest. When breaks occurred in several levees, flooding carried away newly planted trees, destroyed irrigation systems, and washed away valuable topsoil.
As for citrus greening, the best way to slow the spread of the disease traditionally has been to eliminate the insect that spreads it and remove infected trees. However, adoption of new therapies and technologies as well as ongoing research into new nutritional supplements, reflective mulch, heat treatments, insecticides, bactericides, and greening-tolerant trees and root stalks show promise.
Researchers are also working on breeding an HLB-resistant tree, and some growers have started to grow citrus under protective screens. However, these technologies, therapies and practices require significant investment, and the development of a completely HLB-resistant tree is still years away, according to Joyner.
“I do think there is a bright future for Florida citrus, though,” Joyner said. “We now have trees and root stalks that are greening tolerant. We just started using bactericides that are applied directly to the tree, and we are seeing tree health like we haven’t seen in years.”
At the peak of Florida’s production in the 1990s and early 2000s, 900,000 acres consistently produced more than 250 million boxes of oranges each year, more than 10 times what the state produces today. While much of that acreage has since gone to other uses, Joyner said the production decline has been much greater than the loss in acreage because of the yield declines caused by both HLB and weather-related events.
“Today there are about 350,000 acres in orange production. As we see new trees being planted, we will see productivity and boxes increase. The best, and most likely case, is that the therapies we are employing continue to make our trees healthier. As productivity increases, growers will be able to replant and we will see an upward trend in our boxes, but it will take time to rebuild,” Joyner said.
He believes that the potential exists for Florida production to reach the point where it can once again meet all U.S. demand for orange juice and possibly even export some juice as well. “Over the next few years, we will have newer and even better therapies and technologies,” he adds.
For now, though, with greening and storms taking a toll on Florida’s citrus crop, juice imports will continue to be blended with Florida juice to fill demand and improve the taste of Florida’s juice, which has been negatively affected by HLB.
California will continue to focus on the fresh market, because the state’s cost of production limits growers there from switching to juice oranges, and demand for orange juice has been falling for decades as some consumers shun sugary, high-calorie drinks as well as an increasingly costly product.
Orange juice availability, a proxy for demand, has been falling right along with production. Even with imports, the availability of orange juice in the United States has declined from about 5 gallons per person in the 2000-01 marketing year to an estimated 2 gallons per person in 2022-23, according to USDA’s Economic Research Service.
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