Citrus production in Florida has been affected by recent hurricanes after damaging farms
Recent hurricanes are leaving one Florida orange farm forced to rebuild as it tries to fill orders during its busy season.
Florida oranges are hard to come by after recent hurricanes affected production on farms across the state.
The US Department of Agriculture predicts that the state’s citrus season, which runs from October to June on average, will be worse than last year.
Florida is expected to produce 12 million 90-pound boxes of oranges from 2024 to 2025, according to the USDA. That number is down nearly six million boxes after 17.96 million were produced in the 2023 to 2024 season.
Matthew Schorner, general manager of Al’s Family Farms, said his farm was hit by tornadoes during Hurricane Milton in October.
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A packinghouse at Al’s Family Farms after it was battered during Hurricane Milton. (Fox Stories)
“It was probably twenty tornadoes. Who knows how many came out of that big black cloud,” Schorner said.
Al’s Family Farms has been shipping oranges nationwide for nearly fifty years. They put fruit in a packing house that had survived many storms, even Hurricane Milton.
“It’s surprising to see how many storms this building endured, and then it collapsed,” said Schorner. “I looked at it and I said wow. I couldn’t believe it – I was in tears – I couldn’t believe it. What am I going to do? So I slowed down and prayed, and then I heard God. He told me to ask to rebuild.”
About two weeks after the storm hit, the farm was able to resume packing fruit in their building.
Matthew Schorner takes a box full of oranges off the conveyor belt at Al’s Family Farms. (Fox News / Fox News)
The typhoon destroyed some of the trees in this farm and led to them losing their crops, said Schorner, adding that the peach trees were uprooted after being hit by the storm.
They relied on partnerships and friends in the industry to help them get through the rebuilding period.
“We are always growing, picking, packing and shipping. We are there for the whole program. We may not be able to do 100% of the work, but we can do it through friends, family and so on. businessmen come in and work with us,” said Schorner.
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The farm’s owner, Jeff Schorner, said the holiday season is one of the busiest times of the year for them.
“This is our big season. We have about six weeks to ‘go, go, go’ and pack Christmas fruit,” Jeff said. “We’re a winter business, that’s when all the tourists come to see us, so we had to start working.”
Citrus fruits are processed at Al’s Family Farms in Florida. (Fox News / Fox News)
Florida Citrus Mutual CEO Matt Joyner said it may take a while for farms to return to normal.
“These are tree crops. They don’t recover in one year, it usually takes three years before they return to pre-storm production. Having these many hurricanes in the last seven years affects farmers because they don’t have a chance for those trees to recover and the trees to return to peak production,” he said. Joyner.
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A poor citrus season could lead to higher prices for citrus products, Joyner said.
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