Hurricane Milton cut harvest season short just as central Florida citrus growers were becoming more optimistic about the future of their industry.
The Category 3 hurricane struck some of the state’s leading counties for grapefruit and oranges, with winds more than sufficient to blow down trees and knock fruit off the ones that remain standing.
“It has been just one hit after another,” said Matt Joyner, CEO and executive vice president of Florida Citrus Mutual, a trade group representing 2,000 growers, recalling damage from Hurricane Ian two years ago and Hurricane Irma in 2017.
Joyner said growers were emerging from those disasters and encouraged by recent breakthroughs in research to combat citrus greening disease, which has shrunk the industry in Florida by as much as 75 percent since 2005, by some estimates.
