Florida crop freeze damage expected to be in the millions of dollars

Florida growers this week are expected to learn just how much damage was done by this month’s freezing temperatures. Preliminary estimates, according to Ag Emergency Report, show that 13 consecutive nights of freezing temperatures has destroyed nearly a third of the state’s winter fruit and vegetable production and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in losses. The sub-zero overnight temperatures ended Jan. 13.
Freezing temperatures struck all of central Florida’s growing regions from Plant City’s strawberries to vegetables in Immokalee and Naples in southwest Florida to Belle Glad in West Palm Beach County, to Homestead and areas along the East Coast.
On Jan. 14, Fla. Ag Commissioner Charles Bronson toured the Plant City area and planned to visit other hard hit areas. State officials are expected to receive preliminary damage estimates this week. Terrance McElroy at the Fla. Dept. of Ag and Consumer Services, said it will be hard to get solid number on damages caused since there are up to 9 million acres of produce grown in the state.
Congressman Adam Putnam, who represents Fla.’s 12th Congressional District, was planning to inspect damage to crops, foliage and aquaculture in Central and South Florida. He led a bipartisan appeal from the Fla. Congressional delegation to USDA to be prepared to respond quickly to an anticipated request from Gov. Charlie Crist for disaster relief. Putnam was scheduled to meet with growers at the Tropical Plant Industry Exhibition, Jan. 14-16, in Ft. Lauderdale.
On Jan. 14, Bronson asked Crist to request an ag disaster declaration from the federal government. On Jan. 15, Crist sent a letter to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack asking him to declare the entire state an ag disaster. Crist said all of the state's 67 counties will meet the USDA damage threshold and that no sector of ag appeared to have beeen spared, including nursery crops.