Kathy Waters/Highlands Today


Worker Jose Astudillo picks oranges in a grove off of Airport Road just outside of the Sebring city limits. Total citrus production in Highlands County was down 30 percent during 2006-07.


By Bill Rogers of Highlands Today

Published: March 9, 2008

SEBRING – Total citrus production in three of the top four producing counties in Florida was down - rather significantly - during 2006-07, but that is not surprising to those in the industry.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture Citrus Summary, total citrus production was down 30 percent in Highlands County, 31 percent in Polk County and 23 percent in DeSoto County in 2006-07.

Highlands produced 16.7 million boxes, while Polk totaled 22.4 million boxes to maintain its ranking as the No. 1 producer in the state.

Meanwhile, there was a 36 percent increase in Hendry County during that period. Hendry recorded 21.4 million boxes to move ahead of Highlands into second place.

"Certainly the numbers that are now being reported in the summary we've known about for a while," said Ray Royce, executive director of the Highlands County Citrus Growers Association. "We obviously saw the losses due to the canker program.

"The main culprit, if you want to call it a culprit, for decreased production in Highlands County was the citrus eradication program," he added.

Royce believes that at least 17,000 acres have been lost - temporarily - to the eradication program out of about 69,000 acres in Highlands.

"I hate to use the word lost," Royce said. "Lost in a way says gone. It's sort of like they said 'the woods burned down' The woods don't burn down and go away."

Royce notes that citrus growers know that they are making a long-term investment in a grove. A grower might not get any fruit at all during the first three to four years and not be in full production until year 7. But the hope is that the grove will stay in good production for at least 20 years.

Growers also have to realize that it is cyclical business, according to Mason Smoak, who is the president of the association.

"Farming is gambling to some degree," Smoak said.

Smoak said Highlands lost a lot of acres to canker. Although it was down, he said growers are harvesting a '07-'08 crop that is rebounding.

"We have a better crop in '07 and '08 on the same number of trees that we had in 06 and 07," Royce said. "When you look at a report a year from now you'll say 'wow - it's not going to be dramatic - but it is probably going to be 25 percent higher.' "

There are a couple of reasons for Hendry's surge in production, according to Mongi Zekri, multi-county citrus agent.

High-density planting is being done a lot, with growers planting between 200 and 300 trees per acre.

Zekri said Hendry was affected more so by citrus greening than canker. He added that the large companies such as Southern Gardens, Alico and A. Duda and Sons have been "very aggressive" in greening management.

He noted that trees have been coming back since the 2004 and 2005 hurricanes there. "More urbanization" is another factor, Zekri said.

There are some growers in the southern part of Highlands who are doing high-density planting, Royce said. Most groves in Highlands are in the 150-160 trees per acre range.

The rankings are just about pride as far as Royce is concerned.

"Obviously our goal here is not to be 2 or 3," he said. "Our goal here is to do the best, most efficient job we can in growing citrus in a hopefully profitable way. And, from my perspective, have the county be cooperative in encouraging continued agricultural development."


Source: http://www2.highlandstoday.com/content/2008/mar/09/down-numbers/