Before citrus greening disease quickly spread across Florida's orange groves through the Asian citrus psyllid 20 years ago, the state's industry produced just over 300 million boxes of fruit.
Last year, it was down to 14 million boxes.
Now, historic funding in Florida's budget could help the state's embattled citrus industry … it just needs to get past Gov. Ron DeSantis' veto pen.
Over a two-year period, $320 million would go toward researching greening disease and planting new trees.
"We think that this funding is going to pay tremendous dividends as growers continue to reinvest and rebuild their operations in this industry," said Matt Joyner, executive vice president and CEO of an organization representing growers called Florida Citrus Mutual.
Joyner said this will fund one of the largest field trials in the country.
"The extensive research that's been done over two decades … how do you take that out of a greenhouse?" Joyner said. "How do you take those findings and put them into a commercial environment?"
It will be a combination of grove management, therapeutic tools and disease resistant varieties for new plantings.
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Kyle Story, a grower in Lake Wales, said planting is vital for a thriving orange grove.
"The rule of thumb we have in our operation is, if you're not replanting, you're dying," Story said. "Particularly in this fight in the last 20 years, if you're not putting newer and better trees on the ground ... then the end of your story is already known."
But it's an expensive investment with growers needing to wait five years for the new trees to bear fruit.
"The grower has a significant cost in planting that tree, and then the care of that tree for the first five years, and then to recuperate that cost during the first five years of production," Story said.
"It's really a 10-year investment per tree, and so the state with these types of programs is helping us with the cost of the tree to remove the one that's nonproductive."
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Story is a fourth-generation citrus grower in Florida, so he's witnessed the financial burden of combatting greening the past couple decades — it's completely shifted where growers need to point their efforts and their dollars.
"It's the new normal — 20 years ago, we were spending approximately … 25% to 30% of what we spend today to raise an orange grove on an annual basis," Story said.
It costs about $2,000 more per acre now, he said, while production declines at the same time.
The citrus legislation worked into the state budget also ensures some financial support for rehabbing or purchasing citrus packing equipment, plus quarterly public meetings to present the latest field research reports.
Matt Joyner with Florida Citrus Mutual said while this two-year funding would be a "big to help move the needle on greening," it's not over.
"We need continued research funding to get to the finish line as it pertains to greening," Joyner said.
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