The cost of hurricane Wilma to Florida’s citrus sector is estimated to hit $180m, early reports claimed.
Wilma is expect to have cut the overall citrus harvest for the upcoming season by an estimated 17 per cent of the total crop, around 35.7 million boxes of fruit, the farmer group Florida Citrus Mutual said.
However grapefruit has been particularly hard hit, with 11.3m boxes thought to be lost, equating to around 47 per cent of the entire state’s crop. Orange production is down 13 per cent, or 24.4m boxes.
The value of the loss is based on price expectations after this month's US Department of Agriculture crop estimate.
The cost figure only considers the loss of fruit however, and does not include any damage to trees or re-planting costs, or equipment and facility losses.
On top of this, growers are expecting further fruit to fall from trees over the next few weeks.
Andy LaVigne, Florida Citrus Mutual's executive vice president, told local press: “This is a very preliminary figure that could increase as additional damage is discovered and industry losses are calculated.”
