See a breakdown of the increase in cost that citrus greening has caused the Florida citrus industry.

Citrus greening has hit the Florida industry hard. Costs have gone up and harvests have gone down. But what is the exact increase in cost, in dollars, that citrus greening has caused the Florida citrus industry? University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences UF/IFAS) assistant professor with the Citrus Research and Education Center in Lake Alfred, Ariel Singerman, shared a breakdown of the increase in costs for citrus growers due to greening, also called HLB, in a Citrus Industry article. See a summary of the details below.

Increase in Costs Due to Citrus Greening

Costs increased according to the article due to the increase in use of foliar sprays and fertilizer and an increase in inflation. Key points in the article maintained:

  • The “nominal cost of production per acre increased from $880 in 2003–04 to $1,875 in 2017–18, which is a $995 per acre.”
  • The “real cost of production,” taking inflation into account, “increased from $1,212 in 2003–04 to $1,875 in 2017–18. Thus, the real increase in cost of production per acre during that period was $663.”
  • The “the real cultural cost of production, on a per box basis, went up from $2.83 in 2003–04 to $15.37 in 2017–18, which represents a 443 percent increase.”
  • “Given that Hurricane Irma impacted yield in 2017–18, a more appropriate comparison is to 2016–17, when the real cost of production per box was $10.85. This still represents a 283 percent increase relative to 2003–04.”
  • The “citrus bearing acres in Florida have decreased from 679,000 in 2003–04 to 402,000 in 2017–18. The decrease in area also denotes the reduction in the number of citrus growers across the state, which went down from 7,389 in 2002 to 2,775 in 2017.”

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