The Real Cost of HLB in Florida

Abstract

I estimated the cultural cost per acre of managing HLB in orange citrus groves in Florida to be $663, which represents a 67% increase compared to pre-HLB levels. However, and perhaps more importantly, the real cultural cost of production per box increased by 283% during the same period due to the simultaneous increase in cost per acre and decrease in yield. As a consequence of the multiple challenges growers are currently facing (chiefly, those imposed by HLB), the number of growers decreased from 7,389 in 2002 to 2,775 in 2017.