Lake Wales – As Trevor Murphy is pulled up to his father’s 20-acre grove in one of the fastest growing counties in the United States, he points to a one-storey cookie cutter home that invades orange trees from every side.
“At some point, this won’t become an orange glove anymore,” says Murphy, a third-generation grower, staring at a row of trees on Lake Wales. “You look here, it’s all homes and it’s going to happen here.”
Pork County, which includes Lake Wales, contains more citrus fruit than any other county in Florida. And in 2023, many people moved to Polk County more than any other county in the country.
Population growth, hurricanes and gross citrus greening diseases have kept Florida’s orange industry up. Consumers don’t drink orange juice, so citrus growers are turning back their business in the state. With a huge number of people moving to Florida’s orange-grown areas, developers are building their homes in what used to be orange groves.
Many growers are now making the difficult decision to sell the orange groves that have been in their families for generations to developers who build homes to accommodate the growing population.
Like Murphy, others stick out it and hope that bug-free trees and other options arrive to fight off diseases and treat trees.
Concerns
When Hurricane Irma blows up the state’s orange belt in 2017, Florida’s signature crop had already fallen in a downward spiral for 20 years due to greening disease.
Then there was a massive freeze and two more hurricanes in 2022, followed by two hurricanes last year. Trees that lose branches and leaves in hurricanes could take three years to recover, Murphy said.
These catastrophes have contributed to a 90% decline in orange production over the past 20 years. Florida’s citrus groves cover more than 832,000 acres at the turn of the century, with a population of 275,000 last year, and California overturning Florida as one of the nation’s leading citrus producers.
“Losing the citrus industry is not an option. The industry is ingrained in Florida. Matt Joyner, CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual, recently told Florida State Senators.
Nevertheless, Alico Inc., one of Florida’s biggest growers, announced it plans to cut its citrus business on more than 53,000 acres this year.
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That decision hurts processors containing Tropicana, which relies on Alico’s fruits to produce orange juice, and now needs to work with reduced capacity. Consumption of orange juice in the US has been declining for the past 20 years despite small uplifts during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Gulf Citrus Growers Association, a group of renowned growers, closed its doors last year.
Location, location, location
The pressure on citrus farming is also growing from real estate, one of the state’s biggest industries.
Last year, Florida has expanded from over 467,000 to 23 million, making it the third largest state in the country. And more homes need to be built to accommodate that growing population.
Several well-known multi-generational citrus families sell hundreds of acres (hectares) each for millions of dollars, or $25,000 per acre.
Murphy owns hundreds of acres (hectares) of groves and says he has no plans to abandon the industry, but last year he cared for citrus gloves that managed thousands of acres for other owners.
However, he also has a real estate license, which is useful considering the amount of land he is changing. He recently sold an acre in Polk County to a home developer, and developed a plan to use the money to pay off debts and replant thousands of trees in more productive groves.
“I would like to think we’re at the bottom, but we’re starting to climb that hill,” Murphy says.
Bug-free tree
The entire ecosystem of Florida citrus-dependent companies is at risk if 33,000 full-time and part-time jobs and crops break down with $6.8 billion in economic impacts in Florida alone. In addition to growers, there are juice processors, gloves caretakers, fertilizer sellers, packing homes, nursery schools, candy makers, all hoping to fix citrus greening disease.
Tom Davidson, who founded Dundee Citrus Candy and Jerry Factory Davidson in Lake Wales in 1966, says the decline in citrus production affected the flavors the business could produce and the prices it charges its customers.
“We really hope that we can go back to what we did so that scientists can understand this,” says Davidson.
Researchers have been working for eight years on genetically modified trees that can kill small insects that cause citrus greening. The process involves inserting genes into citrus trees that produce proteins that produce citrus pheasant varieties, according to Lukasz Stelinski, professor of entomology at the Insect Research and Education Center at the University of Florida/Agricultural Sciences Institute.
It could take at least three years for a Bug-resistant tree to be planted and Florida growers to seek help from other techniques. They include planting trees inside protective screens, covering young trees with white sachets to keep insects out, injecting antibiotics and finding trees that have become resistant to greening through natural mutations, distributing them to other groves.
“It’s like being a Lions fan before the Detroit Lions wins the game,” Stelinski says. “I hope we’re making that shift.”
Original issue: March 14th, 2025, 11:28am EDT
