AGRICULTURE
COUNTY AGRICULTURE 2017 (AND CHANGE FROM 2012)
Farms Farm Acreage Value of products
Share of sales crops/livestock
OKEECHOBEE 599 (-12%) 297,439 (-33%) $235.9 million (-8%)
14%/86%
ST. LUCIE 415 (+2%) 225,971 (+16%) $139.6 million (-17%)
89%/11%
MARTIN 594 (+1%) 153,732 (+10%) $112.6 million (-32%)
91%/9%
INDIAN RIVER 450 (-2%) 182,559 (+12%) $106.5 million (-27%)
89%/11%
BREVARD 522 (+2%) 156,565 (+7%) $59 million (+28%)
77%/23%
forecast in December that for the 2019-2020
season, Florida will produce about 80 million
boxes of citrus, up 3.3 percent from the
previous season.
“Five years ago, I looked at the research
and I didn’t see any hope at all,” Bournique
said. “I thought we’d milk out the life of
these trees and that would be it. I know
we’re going to succeed now.”
New groves are being planted in the Indian
1
about 950,000 acres of commercial citrus, and
now there is less than half that. In December,
chairman of the Florida Senate agriculture
committee, Ben Albritton, said the state’s
citrus industry was “standing pretty close to a
cliff.” Albritton’s district includes all or parts of
seven counties, including Okeechobee.
“In 1998-1999, the Indian River District
alone had 40 packing houses, and now we
have six,” said Bournique. “The number of
growers in the Indian River Citrus League
was about 1,600, and now it is about 250.’’
Still, the U.S. Department of Agriculture
TCBusiness.com 7
Source: USDA
revenue at about $6.83 billion, according
to data compiled by FPL.
Agriculture still plays a key role
in St. Lucie, Indian River, Martin and
Okeechobee counties. Citrus in the
area three decades ago was a $2.1
billion industry but it is a third that size
now, said Doug Bournique, executive
vice president of the Indian River
Citrus League. Citrus is making a mild
comeback after being ravaged by tree
diseases while the cattle ranching industry
is finding ways to survive against
its major enemy — development.
Citrus farming in Florida has been
threatened by freezing winter temperatures
since the first grove of oranges
was planted in 1807 on what is now
Merritt Island in Brevard County.
However, the primary killers of citrus
groves have been disease. Citrus canker
in the 1990s was followed about
15 years ago by the citrus greening
disease. St. Lucie, seventh in the state
in volume of citrus grown, and Indian
River, eighth, have what’s left of the
citrus industry in the area.
“Its impact has been devastating to
River area on a scale not seen in years,
our industry,” said Bournique of citrus
he said, even if the industry is a shadow of
greening. In the late 1990s, Florida had its former self.
>>
FLORIDA DEPT. OF CITRUS
A tub of harvested oranges waits to be loaded in an area citrus grove. Indian River citrus has been shipped around the globe.
/TCBusiness.com
