It can be hard to have hope if you are a farmer in today’s agricultural climate. It can be even harder to have optimism if you are a Florida citrus grower.
Yet, Matt Joyner, Florida Citrus Mutual executive vice president and chief executive officer, has hope that the industry is trending upward even amid HLB and multiple hurricanes in previous years.
“Farmers are the eternal optimists, but I would like to think we’re seeing glimmers here and there that justify the optimism,” Joyner said. “It has been a tough couple of decades, especially the last couple of seasons with Hurricane Ian, two significant freeze events and Hurricane Milton, all of which hit some of our most productive areas. The last three seasons, we have really been knocked back by storms, irrespective of the greening issues we’ve been dealing with.”
Despite these challenges, Joyner said there are tools, particularly the OTC (oxytetracycline) injection label, which seem to be moving the needle. “That’s where the optimism stems from.”
That optimism is also evident in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service March citrus forecast. It showed slight increases in Florida’s orange and grapefruit crop estimates. Florida’s lemon and tangerine/mandarin forecasts were unchanged from the February forecast.
“We were glad to see the USDA estimate that came out that basically holds us flat,” Joyner said. “We’ve got a nice bloom coming. We see tree health improving because of some of these therapies. Hope springs eternal for next season.
“At Mutual’s recent board meeting, the growers I talked to are seeing those incremental movements that we would hope to see even in the midst of challenging weather events. We’re convinced that things are trending the direction we need to go.”
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