The Florida Citrus Commission on Wednesday moved forward with a $23.4 million budget for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, as the industry comes out of a year with historically low production.
The commission, which oversees the Florida Department of Citrus, had expected to receive an initial forecast this month from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the 2025-2026 growing season, but the forecast was not released because of the federal-government shutdown. Part of the budget is funded by what is known as a “box tax” on growers.
“Once the forecast is released, we will bring any adjustments to you for your approval,” Shannon Shepp, executive director of the Department of Citrus, told commissioners. “Hopefully those will be excess boxes.”
The box tax will remain unchanged from the past year: 5 cents for fresh oranges, 7 cents for grapefruit and specialty crops, and 12 cents for processed oranges.
The budget anticipates the industry in the 2025-2026 growing season, which recently started, will fill 11.6 million 90-pound boxes of oranges, 1.2 million boxes of grapefruit and 350,000 boxes of specialty fruits. The department also anticipates drawing box-tax revenue from imported oranges and grapefruit.
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Florida growers during the 2024-2025 season produced enough oranges to fill 12.15 million boxes of oranges. Grapefruit production was at 1.3 million boxes, while tangerines and tangelos were at 400,000 boxes and lemons were at 670,000 boxes.
With the industry hammered by hurricane damage and citrus greening disease and development overtaking groves, the overall harvest during the 2024-2025 season was the lowest in more than 100 years.
In the state budget that took effect July 1, legislators approved $124.5 million for the industry. That includes $100 million for new disease-resistant trees, grove management, therapeutic tools and rehabilitating existing trees.
Marisa Zansler, the Department of Citrus’ director of economic and market research, said “early field observations” show new plantings to replace the loss of older trees, with the commercial inventory down 24 percent from a year ago.
“The goal here is to start to see a reversal of this trend over time,” Zansler said. “It may not happen this season or next season, but it will happen, especially as we see these great efforts into the replanting sector.”
The commission’s spending plan includes money for marketing and research. Part of the marketing might include teaming with six Major League Baseball teams during spring training in 2026 --- the New York Yankees in Tampa, the New York Mets in Port St. Lucie, the Detroit Tigers in Lakeland, the Atlanta Braves in North Port, the Boston Red Sox in Fort Myers and the Baltimore Orioles in Sarasota.
Contract talks are still underway. But the effort could include between-inning promotional giveaways and signs around stadiums, including digital signs behind and around home plate.
