Trade Imbalance Impacting Citrus Industry

The citrus industry is not immune to the trade imbalance that is impacting the ag industry across the United States.

From 2000 to 2013, the United States exported more citrus than it imported. However, the imbalance began in 2014 and worsened every year through 2023, equating to a deficit of 26 million boxes.

The staggering statistics are reflective of the citrus industry’s decline in Florida and its growth in other countries, said Danny Munch, an economist with the American Farm Bureau Federation. He spoke about the trade imbalance during the recent Florida Citrus Show.

Munch’s main concern deals with food security. If the United States continues to import more food than it exports, it shows reliance on other countries for a steady food supply.

“The drop in citrus production in Florida has been more than offset by increases in production in developing countries. They’re getting investments from other countries to improve their infrastructure,” Munch said. “We’re seeing China and Brazil really get into those markets in a strong way. But the question really becomes, being that there’s geopolitical instability in a lot of these other nations: What happens if something happens in those nations, and they can’t produce those specialty crops? Now, the United States isn’t producing as much as they could. We still need food security and still need supply in the United States.”

University of Florida associate professor Zhengfei Guan spoke at a recent blueberry meeting in Citra, Florida. He presented facts from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service and noted an ag surplus of more than $30 billion in 2010 dropped to an ag deficit of almost $40 billion in 2024. The deficit is even higher for horticultural products at $63 billion.

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