http://www.theledger.com/article/20090918/NEWS/909185035
Polk Still No. 1 in New Census
By Kevin Bouffard
THE LEDGER
Published: Friday, September 18, 2009 at 7:09 p.m.
Last Modified: Friday, September 18, 2009 at 10:46 p.m.
LAKE WALES | Like other sectors of the U.S. economy, the Florida citrus industry may have hit bottom and can only go up.
"It's like the bleeding has stopped," said Dave Crumbly, a vice president at Florida's Natural Growers, the Lake Wales grower-owned citrus processing cooperative, commenting on the new census of Florida citrus grove acreage and trees released Friday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The numbers looked better for Polk County. It kept and widened its lead as the state's top citrus county by area with 82,629 acres, a 1.5 percent increase from a year ago.
That bucked the statewide trend. Total citrus land in Florida declined 1.3 percent to 568,814 acres since the last census in 2008.
"Many growers thought the acreage number would be down and down substantially," said Mike Sparks, CEO at Lakeland-based Florida Citrus Mutual, the state's largest growers' representative. "I think it's a reflection the citrus growers are still dedicated to the Florida citrus industry."
Hendry County, the second largest county, saw its acreage decline 4.4 percent to 66,821 acres in a year. Highlands County stayed flat at No. 3 with 62,443 acres while fourth-ranked DeSoto County rose 1.4 percent to 62,304 acres.
Before the citrus canker and citrus greening outbreaks within the past decade, many believed Hendry would eventually overtake Polk as Florida's citrus king. But the bacterial diseases have hit the southern half of the citrus-growing region much harder than Polk, Highlands and DeSoto farther north.
St. Lucie County reflects that trend. It's still the fifth largest citrus county, but it declined 4.7 percent to 45,800 acres. That's down 45 percent from the 82,987 acres in the 2004 census.
While the new acreage number represents the lowest decline this decade, Florida citrus acreage still fell to the lowest point since the census began in 1996. It peaked at 941,471 acres in 1970.
The 2006 census showed a loss of 127,182 acres, the worst loss since 1986, when grove acreage declined 136,873 acres after two major freezes.
The USDA has conducted a biennial census of Florida's citrus acreage and trees by aerial photography since 1966. It forms the base for the USDA's monthly citrus crop estimates from October to July, and those numbers become the biggest factor in how much money growers get for their fruit.
Because of the citrus industry's request for more current census numbers, the USDA revised its procedures beginning this year.
Instead of covering the entire Florida commercial citrus belt, which runs roughly from Interstate 4 south, the USDA now divides each county in two and surveys one half each year. Friday's report combines the new data from half of the state's 34 commercial citrus counties combined with the 2008 data from the other halves.
"That's really going to improve our records. We'll have newer data to share," said Candi Erick, an administrator with the Florida Agricultural Statistics Service, the USDA agency that conducts the census.
The tree numbers largely reflect acreage with two exceptions among the top five counties.
Hendry continues to lead the state with 10 million trees, slightly ahead of Polk with 9.8 million trees.
That reflects denser plantings in Hendry, which grew significantly after three major 1980s freezes killed millions of trees in the northern part of the citrus belt. Many of the older Polk groves have densities reflecting pre-1980 technology.
Denser plantings put DeSoto with 8.3 million trees, slightly ahead of Highlands with 8 million.
The better-than-expected tree numbers could become bad news for growers, who would benefit from higher farm prices if the 2009-10 orange crop comes in low - 140 million boxes or less. The census number could make that less likely.
The first USDA crop forecast come out Oct. 9.
