Florida is known for their delicious oranges, and Disney World even has a special character in honor of the Sunshine State’s popular crop.
Orange Bird!
Citrus is a $9 billion industry in this state, and it employs almost 76,000 Floridians (according to VisitFlorida). But this year, the orange crop isn’t looking too good — and the issues might affect the price of many Americans’ go-to breakfast beverage.
According to Fox 35, forecasters in Florida’s citrus industry are “predicting the smallest orange crop since 1945.” Florida farmers are expected to produce over 44 million 90-pound boxes of oranges, but apparently that amount isn’t quite as impressive as it sounds. In fact, it’s lower than the 2017 numbers, even though that crop had been devastated by Hurricane Irma that year.
Cuties Mandarins
The industry department in Florida blames the low production on citrus greening, which is “an incurable disease” that infects orange trees and causes them to produce bad oranges. It was first found in Florida’s orange trees about 17 years ago.
Bruleeing Oranges
In an effort to eradicate the disease, Florida destroyed more than 60,000 healthy, uninfected trees between 2002 and 2006. This month, 18,000 Florida homeowners demanded recompense for the destruction, and a state court ruled that the homeowners will be payed about $700 per healthy tree that was destroyed.
Oranges
In the meantime, we can expect to see price increases on oranges as a result of the smaller crop this year. Experts are predicting that orange juice especially will get more expensive soon.
Orange Juice
This news comes on the heels of more expected price increases, many of which are due to supply chain problems. Cream cheese, chicken tenders, beef, and other common grocery store items are expected to get more expensive and more difficult to find.
Chicken tenders
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The post Why a Popular Breakfast Drink Is About to Get More Expensive first appeared on the disney food blog.