Winter freeze causes more than $3B in Florida agriculture losses

In a release, Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson described the freeze events as “one of the most damaging” in Florida agriculture history.

The fallout is expected to linger into future harvests, according to preliminary estimates reported Friday from Simpson’s Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

“Freeze events of this nature have not been experienced by Florida producers for decades,” the report stated. “The freeze struck areas vital to Florida’s production of vegetables and melons, citrus, sugarcane, fruits, horticulture and aquaculture.” 

The report notes that much of the industry was unable to quickly harvest crops due to “products not ready for harvesting, windy conditions, shortage of resources such as storage facilities, (and) on-site available labor.”

By comparison, Hurricane Ian, which hit Southwest Florida as a deadly Category 4 storm in September 2022, left about $1.07 billion in damages to the agricultural industry, with growers of citrus, vegetable and horticultural crops taking the biggest hits from the wind, rains and flooding.

The trio of named storms that hit Florida in 2024, Hurricane Milton, which plowed into Sarasota County with 120 mph maximum sustained winds in October, along with Hurricane Debby in August and Hurricane Helene in September both making landfall in rural Taylor County, combined for nearly $1 billion in crop and livestock losses.

With many agriculture producers in the peak of their growing and planting periods, losses from Ezra and Gianna were topped by the reported $1.15 billion hit to sugarcane growers and $674.7 million by the already fragile citrus industry.

Half of the sugarcane damage is projected as future production losses.

“Since sugarcane is a perennial grass harvested on an annual basis, damage caused by freeze events affects not only the remainder of the current unharvested crop, but also the production of future crops currently ratooning after harvest or recently planted for next year’s crop,” the report states.

The losses included $327 million in damage to citrus trees.

“The industry will face a multi-year average loss in productivity of 27 percent per year before returning to pre-storm production,” the report stated. “It is estimated that 80 percent of the total acres of citrus in Florida were significantly affected by the freeze.”

Damages were attributed to fruit, foliage and limb, bloom and fruitlet and tree loss estimated at 15 percent of those in the affected areas.

Greenhouses and nurseries suffered around $240 million in losses.

Strawberry growers had damages of $306 million, for sweet corn growers it was $255 million in losses, with losses for bell peppers at $108 million and tomatoes at $164 million. Also, blueberry losses were at $78.5 million, to watermelon crops it was $65 million, potatoes at $79 million, cabbage at $21.8 million and squash at $24.5 million.

The report stated that 80 percent of the remaining strawberry harvest and 90 percent of the remaining blueberry crop were among the losses.

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an executive order on Feb. 9 that directed Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie to oversee the state’s response to the cold weather, which includes seeking assistance and agreements as needed with the federal government.