A citrus farm in Florida was forced to rebuild while trying to fulfill orders during their busiest season due to recent hurricanes.
florida oranges This has become difficult to achieve after recent hurricanes affected production at farms across the state.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates the state’s citrus season, which runs on average from October to June, will be worse than last year.
According to the USDA, Florida is expected to produce 12 million 90-pound boxes of oranges from 2024 to 2025. That number has dropped by nearly six million boxes after producing 17.96 million boxes during the 2023 to 2024 season.
Matthew Schorner, general manager of Al Family Farms, said his farm was hit by the tornado Hurricane Milton in October.
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Al Family Farms’ packaging building after being hit by a tornado during Hurricane Milton. (Fox News)
“There may have been twenty tornadoes. Who knows how many in that huge dark cloud,” Schorner said.
Al’s family farm has been shipping citrus across the country for almost five decades. They store the fruit in a packaging building that survived dozens of hurricanes until Hurricane Milton.
“It’s amazing to see how many storms this building has weathered and then it’s completely destroyed,” Schorner said. “I saw it and I was going wow. I couldn’t believe it – I had tears in my eyes – I couldn’t believe it. What am I going to do? Then I slowed down and prayed, And then I realized God told me to rebuild.”
About two weeks after the storm, the farm was able to resume packaging fruit in its building.
Matthew Schorner picks a packed box of citrus from the belt line at Al’s Family Farms. (Fox News/Fox News)
The storm damaged some of the farm’s trees and ruined some of their crops, Schorner said, adding that some trees in the peach orchard were ripped from the ground after the tornado hit.
They are relying on partnerships and friends in the industry to help during the rebuild.
“We are always the ones who grow, pick, pack and ship. We are there during the entire process. We may not be able to work 100% of the time, but we make it easier for friends, family and The businesses that are able to accomplish that through come and work with us,” said Schorner.
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Farm owner Jeff Schorner said the holiday season is one of the busiest times of the year for him.
“This is our main season. We have about six weeks of ‘let’s go, let’s go, let’s go’ fruit packing For Christmas,” Jeff said. “We have a winter business, this is the time when all the tourists come to visit us, so we had to start it.”
Citrus fruits are being processed at Al’s family farm in Florida. (Fox News/Fox News)
Matt Joyner, CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual, said it may take some time for farms to get back to normal.
“These are a tree crop. They don’t recover in one year, it usually takes them about three years to get back to pre-hurricane production. Having so many hurricanes in the last seven years is impressive to growers because they If you don’t do that, Joyner said, “those trees have no chance of recovering and reaching their peak production.”
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Joyner said prices for citrus products could also increase due to poor citrus weather.
