09/13/2026
🍊 Florida's orange groves are vanishing at a pace few saw coming. A new federal citrus inventory shows the state has just 165,359 acres of commercial citrus spread across 23 counties heading into the 2026-2027 growing season, a roughly 21% drop in a single year. Rewind two decades and growers were working 621,373 acres, and as recently as 2016 the number was still 480,121. 📉 Polk County took the hardest hit, shedding 10,944 acres, though it still leads the state with 37,529, followed by Highlands County at 34,671.
Twenty years ago, Polk alone had more than 86,000 acres. Oranges account for 143,650 acres of what remains, with grapefruit near 11,500 and specialty fruit just over 10,000. The losses have stacked up amid hurricanes, winter freezes, citrus greening disease, shifting consumer habits, and development swallowing grove land. 🏗️ Florida's current budget sets aside $160 million for citrus research and field trials, $20 million for equipment grants, and $15 million for marketing.
