By Jim Turner
With farmers caught shorthanded and with crops not ready for harvesting, a pair of winter storms at the beginning and end of January potentially inflicted more than $3.17 billion in losses to the state’s agricultural industry.
Winter storms Ezra from Dec. 30 to Jan. 1 and Gianna from Jan. 26 to Feb. 4 brought freezing temperatures for multiple hours to all but Monroe County, which includes the Florida Keys.
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.”
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