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Agriculture in Southwest Florida: Citrus

The southwest Florida region is compiled of the following five counties: Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry, and Lee. In this regions, during the 2007-08 harvesting season, there were approximately 132,940 acres of citrus that produced 45.3M boxes. Most of the citrus produced in the area is for processed juice.

Southwest Florida Citrus Acreage
    1998-99 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08
Oranges Early Mids 61,537 61,415 51,092 51,092 47,637
  Late 86,782 91,492 81,432 81,432 75,476
Grapefruit White 3,332 2,097 1,197 1,197 856
  Colored 11,847 7,653 5,030 5,030 4,775
SW Florida Citrus Acreage
Southwest Florida Citrus Value ($)
    1998-99 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09
Oranges Early Mids 98,475,300 65,956,980 52,907,020 113,803,480 96,551,120 76,176,080
  Late 108,112,500 99,177,840 100,330,500 233,414,230 163,439,500 139,074,720
Grapefruit White 2,669,550 8,219,770 1,404,360 1,736,920 1,027,700 500,830
  Colored 13,632,300 52,014,200 8,650,500 9,999,900 11,960,000 8,756,790
SW Florida Citrus Value ($)

Advance Production Systems

Implementing Advanced Citrus Production Systems in Florida – Early Results.

Schumann, Arnold W., James P. Syvertsen, and Kelly T. Morgan, University of Florida, 2009. Proc. Fla. State Hort. Soc. Vol. 122

The advanced citrus production system (ACPS) is a short- to medium-term approach to citrus water and nutrient management now being evaluated in Florida citrus groves for sustainable, profi table citrus production in the presence of greening and canker diseases. The goal of ACPS is to compress and enhance the citrus production cycle so economic payback can be reached in fewer years to offset some of the disease losses

Publications

Budgeting Costs and Returns for Southwest Florida Citrus Production, 2008-09

Ronald P. Muraro

Estimated costs and returns of growing processed-market round oranges and fresh-market seedless grapefruit in the Southwest area of Florida are presented for the tenth consecutive year. While Southwest Florida refers primarily to Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry, and Lee Counties, the costs shown are also applicable to Okeechobee and Sarasota Counties. The format presented may be used by individual growers to budget costs and returns, utilizing individual data on specific groves. This is a yearly report available from Ron Muraro.

The Florida Citrus Industry: Government and Non-Government Organizations

Thomas H. Spreen, Ronald P. Muraro, Fritz M. Roka, and R. Allen Morris. University of Florida, IFAS, FE812, 2009

The Florida citrus industry has a long history of cooperation both among competing firms and between firms and government entities. The purpose of this document is to identify the major organizations that work for the benefit of the Florida citrus industry and to provide a brief introduction to their activities.

The Phantom Costs of Florida’s Citrus Industry

Ronald P. Muraro, Fritz M. Roka, Thomas H. Spreen, and Marcus Timpner. University of Florida, IFAS, FE669, 2007

A group of growers from Florida's Peace River Valley citrus growing region posed the question: “What are the total costs of governmental regulatory compliance?” In researching other agricultural crops produced in the United States, no compliance cost information was found. Therefore, a working group of growers and UF/IFAS personnel had to start from scratch to develop and implement a survey to enumerate regulatory compliance costs. This EDIS document explains how it was done and the results that came out of the survey.

Citrus Production on the Sandy Soils of Southwest Florida

R.M. Muchovej, E.A. Hanlon, T. Obreza, M. Ozores-Hampton, F.M. Roka, S. Shukla, H. Yamataki, and K. Morgan. University of Florida, IFAS, SL-234, 2006

The intent of this document is to review those challenges facing citrus growers dealing with soils, water management, and nutrients. Certain available strategies are evolving to efficiently produce citrus in southwest Florida on variable mineral soils and are reviewed herein.

Hurricanes and the Harvesting Decision

F.M. Roka, R.E. Rouse, S. Futch, and R. Muraro, EDIS FE624, IFAS. 2006

This paper addresses the generic question of whether a crop should be harvested after sustaining significant loss. This paper provides a citrus grower with a roadmap to determine the economic criteria for harvesting the remaining crop after a hurricane. Conversely, when is it in the best economic interest for a grower to abandon the remaining crop? While the hurricanes of 2004 motivated this paper, the analysis is applicable to any situation arising from natural disasters, pest infestations, or collapsing market prices.

Links

SWFREC Citrus Horticulture Program - Dr. Bob Rouse

The Citrus Horticulture program serves the extension and applied research needs for commercial plantings in the Southwest Florida Gulf Coast region. Program areas emphasized include nursery tree production, nutrition sources for establishing young trees, general cultural practices during tree establishment, and environmentally sound cover crops for row middles in bedded flatwoods groves.

Gulf Citrus Growers Association

The Gulf Citrus Growers Association is a trade association representing the citrus growers of Southwest Florida. Its geographical service area includes Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry and Lee Counties. "Gulf Citrus" addresses key issues of economic importance to the sustainable growth and development of the citrus industry in the region. These issues include land and water use, environmental regulation, farm worker relations, transportation, marketing, domestic and international trade programs. The association also serves as the "Gulf" citrus industry voice on other issues impacting the area's agricultural industry.