Recent hurricanes cause Florida citrus production to fall as farms work through damage

Florida oranges are harder to come by after recent hurricanes impacted production at farms across the state.The U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts the state’s citrus season, which runs from October to June on average, will be worse than last year.Florida is expected to produce 12 million 90-pound boxes of oranges from 2024 to 2025, according to the USDA. That number is down by nearly six million boxes after 17.96 million were produced during the 2023 to 2024 season.Matthew Schorner, the general manager of Al’s Family Farms, said his farm was struck by tornadoes during Hurricane Milton in October.HURRICANE MILTON RELIEF EFFORTS: THESE COMPANIES ARE HELPING AFFECTED COMMUNITIES”It may have been twenty tornadoes. Who knows how many popped up in that giant black cloud,” Schorner said.Al’s Family Farms has been shipping citrus across the country for nearly five decades. They box up fruit in a packaging building that had survived dozens of hurricanes, until Hurricane Milton.”It’s amazing to see how many hurricanes this building endured, and then it was all just crushed,” Schorner said. “I looked at it and I was like wow. I couldn’t believe it – I’m in tears – I can’t believe it. What am I going to

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