Palm Beach, St. Lucie, Four Other Counties Lose 13 Percent of Groves
Posted on: Monday, 26 September 2005, 09:01 CDT
Sep. 26--Six citrus-producing counties that bore the brunt of the 2004 hurricanes lost almost 13 percent of their commercial groves to the storms, as well as to urbanization and diseases such as citrus canker, a new study shows.
Bob Terry, statistics administrator with the National Agricultural Statistics Service's Florida field office in Orlando, said a tree count was conducted during the first six months of this year in St. Lucie, Indian River, Martin, Palm Beach, DeSoto and Hardee counties to determine how severe the losses were.
In St. Lucie, the state's biggest grapefruit county, the number of grapefruit trees fell to 3.1 million from 4.1 million a year ago. Overall, the six counties lost 18.5 percent of their grapefruit trees.
"Before the storms, these six counties represented 40 percent of the state's total citrus acreage and produced 35 percent of the oranges and 75 percent of the state's grapefruit. It is a big change," Terry said.
Doug Bournique, executive vice president of the Indian River Citrus League in Vero Beach, said the reduced number of trees will mean better fruit prices for member growers.
Growers estimate this year's Indian River grapefruit crop will be about 70 percent of a normal crop, Bournique said. In the 2004-05 season, the region from West Palm Beach to Daytona Beach produced just 4.9 million 85-pound boxes of grapefruit -- the smallest harvest since 1935-36 -- instead of the more typical 28 million boxes.
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Source: The Palm Beach Post
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