Growers in the cold-hardy citrus region enjoyed a bountiful crop in 2024. Unfortunately, that is not expected to be the case in 2025.
Lindy Savelle, executive director of the Georgia Citrus Association, said the expected drop in volume is due to multiple factors, including the winter storm last month that brought historic snowfall and sub-freezing temperatures over multiple days. But the main reason is the Christmas freeze event in 2022.
“We definitely will not have as much fruit this year as we did in 2024. The ’25 crop will be less than ’24. But that’s due in part because of the ’23 crop. We just didn’t have a lot of fruit that year because of the ’22 freeze,” Savelle said. “All of that energy and carbohydrates were stored up in those trees, and they just busted out with an overabundance of fruit this (past) year. This year was exceptionally high, so next year, even if it were a normal season, it would not produce as much.
“When you have a tree that’s loaded up with a lot of fruit, the next year you don’t expect it to have much. You already have that factor working against your fruit volume next year.”
This doesn’t even take into account what happened this past January. Heavy snow and low temperatures were felt across the cold-hardy citrus region of North Florida, South Georgia and South Alabama. Producers are still assessing damage which could further impact next season’s crop.
“If the trees are fighting to recover, they won’t produce as much because of that,” Savelle said. “The jury is still out on what this freeze and the snow actually did to the trees. We’ve got a little waiting period to see what damage it caused,” Savelle said.
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